The Cadillac Gage Ranger is no longer offered by Textron, with trademarks cancelled, though it is unclear when it was discontinued.[2] In 2003, Textron unveiled a successor to the Ranger, the Cadillac Gage Peacekeeper II. As of 2020, the Ranger's per unit replacement cost is approximately US$230,720.[1]
History
The Cadillac Gage Ranger began production in 1979 to meet a USAF Security Forces requirement for armored vehicles to use in base protection and patrols.[3] The first Rangers were delivered to the USAF in April 1980, with 571 vehicles under a contract of $30,532 each.[1][4] In 1981, 560 additional Rangers were ordered by the USAF and the United States Navy.[4] By 1994, around 708 Rangers had been produced and served with the U.S. military, with 20 of those Rangers sold to Indonesia the same year.[4]
By the mid-to-late 1990s, the Ranger was being phased out of service to be replaced by the Humvee,[5] but in 1996, Rangers with the USAF Security Forces were deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of Implementation Forcepeacekeeping, the only time they are known to have been deployed in a military conflict.[4]
In 1996, National Museum of the United States Air Force collections chief Scott Ferguson convinced his superiors that a 1980 Cadillac Gage Ranger on display at the museum had been requested by another military facility; however, this was in fact a lie Ferguson used to steal the Ranger, drive it off Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and hide it in Middletown, Ohio. Between 1997 and 1998, Ferguson drove the Ranger across Ohio state lines and displayed it at military conventions in Tennessee and Pennsylvania before selling it on the black market on July 11, 1999 for $18,000; it would ultimately be sold to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina for $38,000. In August 2004, Ferguson was found guilty for stealing the Ranger and crossing state lines in it. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release, and fined $29,000 in restitution.[6][7]
In 2010, Federal Defense Industries and Textron entered an agreement to allow FDI to provide authorized aftermarket parts, support, and assistance for servicing the Ranger.[8] Defenseshield is contracted to provide replacement windows for Rangers still in service.[9]
Design
A USAF Security Forces officer manning an M60 machine gun mounted atop a Cadillac Gage Ranger in 1983
The Cadillac Gage Ranger is built on a Dodge Ram truck chassis with a shorter wheelbase.[3][10] It uses a front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout, coupled to an automatic transmission with three forward gears and one reverse gear.[3][4] The Ranger has a weight of 4,903 kg (10,809 lb) when loaded, with a length of 5,030 mm (198 in), a height of 2,030 mm (80 in), and a ground clearance of 203 mm (8.0 in). Its top speed is 113 km/h (70 mph) with an operational range of 483 km (300 miles).[11]
The vehicle can carry one driver, one front passenger, and four rear passengers. Bucket seats are provided for the driver and front passenger, while bench seats are provided for the rear cabin.[3] The entire body of the vehicle, including the floor, features Cadloy vehicle armor capable of withstanding 7.62 mm fire.[1]
Weapons are installed on a rotatable top-mounted gun turret that allows for the mounting of a general-purpose machine gun (typically excluded in law enforcement configurations), as well as firing ports for the vehicle's occupants to fire weapons and dispense devices such as smoke grenades with minimal risk.[3][10]
