Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Fast and Furious in Afghanistan

Aired February 22, 2002 - 05:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Patrolling the desert of Afghanistan can be a dangerous assignment. But for U.S. troops, it's safer if they take along their DPV.

CNN's Martin Savidge tells us what the heck that is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Looking for a car with plenty of go, plenty of guns, and can turn on a dime? Scotty, our cameraman, can attest to that. Then the U.S. Navy Seals have just the car for you -- a DPV, Desert Patrol Vehicle. These DPVs have been in storage since Desert Storm.

Now they're back and badder than ever. Originally built in California by a company that makes racing cars, DPVs have racing suspension, racing tires, and drivers trained at -- you got it, racing school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Essentially what we're doing is we're driving across country at about 40 to 50 miles an hour comfortably.

SAVIDGE: That's three times the speed of most other military vehicles. DPVs are powered by souped-up Volkswagen engines. Why Volkswagen, you ask? Because they make air-cooled engines, so there's no coolant to leak when the bullets start flying.

Speaking of bullets, take a look at these options the Seals added. The passenger operates a Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher that fires 350 explosive rounds a minute. The gunner has a 50-caliber machine gun facing forward and an M-60 machine gun facing backwards, to ward off any tailgaters.

The there are the anti-tank rockets plus the Seal's own weapons...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No other vehicle carries that amount of armament.

SAVIDGE: No kidding. Even the six-seat family truckster version has a 50-calibur machine gun to keep the folks in the back seat occupied.

But the DPV's biggest weapon is speed. It's hard to hit an object moving this fast, which is a good thing, since DPVs have no armor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one can really track us with their laser trackers, things like that. Like when we're going up against tanks, they can't get a laser target on us.

SAVIDGE: So what's the ride like? Scotty, the cameraman, strapped himself into the gunner's seat and started shooting -- video, that is.

If by now you want to have your own DPV, they cost around $100,000 each, weapons not included. For the special forces operating in Afghanistan, just tracking down remaining Taliban and al Qaeda forces may be half the battle. But they admit, with their DPVs, it's also half the fun.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Kandahar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com