How Marines used a 3D printer and a little ‘grunt ingenuity’ to make gadgets that help them in combat

Harold C. Hutchison
Nov 1, 2018 9:15 PM PDT
1 minute read
Marine Corps photo

SUMMARY

Second Lt. Ben Lacount knows that it’s never a good thing to run out of rounds during a firefight. And it’s certainly not a good thing to be surprised that you have. That’s why he invented the “Lacounter” with help …

Second Lt. Ben Lacount knows that it's never a good thing to run out of rounds during a firefight. And it's certainly not a good thing to be surprised that you have.


That's why he invented the "Lacounter" with help from Navy engineers and a 3D printer that allowed him to cut prototyping time down to a fraction. The device allows shooters to see how many rounds they've expended while pulling the trigger so that they're not in a bind when they do.

The Lacounter even works with belt fed weapons like the M249 and M2 .50cal.

Lacount's prototype takes advantage of a process known as "additive manufacturing," and it's one that could change the face of military logistics forever.

U.S. Marine 2nd Lt. Ben Lacount presents his winning entry from the Marine Corps Innovation Challenge during a showcase at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, in West Bethesda, Md., Aug. 15, 2017. Lacount created an expended rounds counter for the M16 rifle in the Manufacturing, Knowledge and Education Laboratory, Carderock™s additive manufacturing collaborative space. (U.S. Navy photo by Dustin Q. Diaz/Released)

"My goal for this project was to have a simple, lightweight, low-cost and no battery solution to this issue," Lacount said, according to a Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock release.

And Lacount's not alone.

Captain Kyle McCarley helped come up with a new way to carry the "Bangalore torpedo," an explosive device used to blow up obstacles like barbed wire. While they are very useful, they are bulky, and take up space. But McCarley used a 3D printer to make a quiver-like pack with elastic straps for the devices that can attack to a normal assault pack.

Then there was Staff Sgt. Daniel Diep, an artilleryman. After noticing that the cable for the Chief of Section Display got damaged from debris that got stuck in the cable – something that took a week and $3,000 to fix – he designed a 3D-printed cable head that cost $10 to make.

Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit fire their M777 Howitzer during a fire mission in northern Syria as part of Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve. USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Zachery Laning

"The neat thing about this cable cap is the cable heads themselves can be additively manufactured, and Marines like myself can take all the old cables, cut them down, and we can put new heads on them after 3-D printing," Diep said.

But the neatest trick of all is getting the 3D printers closer to the grunts. Captain Tony Molnar and Master Sgt. Gage Conduto have worked that out – not only by bringing the printers to units at FOBs, but also a processing center to recycle plastic, like water bottles often delivered to troops on deployment. This will be a huge boon for explosive ordnance techs like Conduto.

Spc. Ryan Rolf, a combat engineer from Fullerton, Nebraska, with the 402nd Engineer Company, places a field expedient bangalore packed with C-4 explosive in a barbed wire obstacle during an in-stride breach event at the 2014 Sapper Stakes competition at Fort McCoy, Wis., May 5. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Michel Sauret)

"I can't walk down to the Marine Corps machinist with a stinger missile in my hand and say, 'I need a set of tools made, can you get these back to me next week?'" he said.

But the tech could go even further, than just helping come up with new tools. In fact, it could be a huge game-changer for any forward-deployed unit.

3D Printing in a laboratory setting. Now, imagine a field-deployable 3D printer set-up, along with something to harvest or recycle materials to use in the printer. (Photo by Jonathan Juursema.)

"This container will benefit the Marine expeditionary units and the Marine Corps and DOD because it can do two things: One, it enhances the expeditionary readiness of forward-deployed units by being able to print parts locally on site using recycled materials, and second, it helps those combat units forward by providing stuff that they can't do, as well as printing stuff for the local populous during humanitarian disaster relief that we couldn't normally do and that we'd have to pay someone to do," Molnar told the Navy News Service.

Marine grunts getting inventive — that's a very frightening thought ... for America's enemies.

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