Red Dot Delivers Comfort, Control for Blackwater’s Grizzly APC

You probably know Blackwater Worldwide as the U.S. State Department’s largest private security contractor, protecting diplomats and other VIPs in some of the most dangerous places in the world.

But the Moyock, N.C., company also designs its own trucks for urban patrolling, convoy protection, medical evacuation, and reconnaissance. Its latest is the Grizzly, a steel-plated personnel carrier that uses a Seagrave chassis and a Caterpillar C7 diesel engine for power. The body—diamond-shaped to deflect blasts from below or the sides—can accommodate eight to 10 passengers plus a driver.

“Air conditioning is a necessity in an armored vehicle, especially in Iraq,” says Dieter Hartmann of Red Dot distributor W.W. Williams in Atlanta. “Without it, the heat would be a hazard to the people you’re trying to protect.”

Blackwater asked W.W. Williams to design a tough, reliable A/C system capable of cooling the Grizzly’s interior from 140 F ambient to 85 F in one hour—a common requirement for military vehicles with mine-resistant armor. W.W. Williams had to use commercially available components so the system would be simple and cost-effective to maintain.

Hartmann worked with Red Dot Corp. to spec a solution: a Red Dot R-9520 heater-A/C unit for the driver’s area and two R-4122 air conditioners for the passenger compartment.

The R-9520 is a rugged, low-profile unit with reversible cores that’s typically used in construction, mining, or agriculture vehicles. It mounts to the floor behind the driver’s seat and can produce up to 430 CFM and 33,070 BTUs cooling.

Two R-4122 sleeper units, one for each side of the vehicle, cool the passenger area. The R-4122 provides 283 CFM and 19,246 BTUs cooling and its four-way air diffuser makes it easy to duct air to different rows of seating.

“The only non-standard modification we made was the refrigerant hose,” Hartmann says. “Because we use only one compressor, we needed a larger suction return. Red Dot suggested #16 refrigerant hose that Aeroquip offers for the school bus market. It works great.”

Red Dot has provided HVAC systems for tactical wheeled and tracked vehicles in the U.S. military since 2004. “Blackwater had seen Red Dot units on a wide range of Army and Marine vehicles,” says Robert Gardiner, Red Dot’s marketing manager. “It gave them the confidence that we know what it takes to design A/C components that are easy to maintain and can stand up to the dust, heat, and war threat.”

To date, W.W. Williams has outfitted roughly 40 Grizzly vehicles with Red Dot units.

“These units are standing up to the most severe conditions you can imagine,” Hartmann says. “And everything we use comes straight from the Red Dot catalog.”