Cadillac Gage Ranger The Cadillac Gage Ranger is a 4×4 armored personnel carrier ( essentially an armored truck ) produced by Cadillac Gage . The largest customer was the United States Air Force ( where it was called the Peacekeeper , or P . K . ) which at one time had over 700 . It is also used by Luxembourg and Indonesia . The vehicle is no longer offered . History . Rangers / Peacekeepers were produced in the late 1970s through early 1980s on a shortened Dodge 200 or Dodge Ram pickup truck chassis , the same chassis as the CUCV . Many were subsequently sold off to local police as SWAT vehicles . A newer version called the PeaceKeeper II was offered on a Ford F - 350 chassis . US Military service . The US Army ' s Military Police used the Ranger as a heavy support and armored patrol vehicle . The military police units of the United States Marine Corps also used the Ranger as a convoy vehicle . It was used in support of United States Navy Submarine - launched ballistic missiles and their warheads while in transit between storage facilities and the subs . Description . It had a crew of four : Fire Team Leader / driver , Rifleman / assistant gunner / front passenger , M - 60 Gunner / left rear passenger , and Grenadier / right rear passenger ( the fire team leader and the rifleman could swap positions in the vehicle ) . The seating in the vehicle was two up front facing the front , one directly behind the driver and one in the rear of the vehicle ; both of the members in the rear faced the opposite wall . The vehicle had firing ports providing 270° coverage . There was one in the front center , one in each of the four doors ( driver ' s , passenger ' s , and two rear ) , and one on each rear side . All firing ports except the one in front had an armored vision block above it . The driver and front passenger had large armored glass vision blocks for forward visibility and two smaller ones in the doors for views to the side . The two front ( right door and left door ) vision blocks ( for driver and passenger ) were larger than the rest . The doors were extremely heavy , and when opening them great care had to be taken that the latch engaged the top of the door . The doors were spring - loaded and if the springs were strong the doors would close immediately . On the inside , the driver and passenger both had door release pads located above the door openings . All one had to do to close the door was hit the pad and the door would slam shut . The rear doors were a different matter . The grenadier had to lean out of the vehicle to use his thumb to depress the door hold open latch while pulling the door closed . These two doors were much lighter than the side doors . The vehicle was equipped with a turret capable of mounting an M60 Machine Gun . The turret had an armored gun shield ( which prevented the mounting of the M - 60E3 ) bolted onto the front of the machine gun cradle . The cradle itself had a coaxial spotlight attached to its right side , enabling the gunner to illuminate any area ; the cable of the spotlight was a constant source of entanglement for the gunner . The hatch opening was notoriously small . Any gunner of extra - large size or larger , while wearing his body armor , would have trouble fitting in the turret , and it would be nearly impossible if he was wearing his gas mask case across his chest . The hatch itself had three positions : full down , half up , and full up ; when full up it acted as a rear shield for the gunner . When opened , the spring - loaded hatch automatically went to the midpoint lock . This forced the gunner to pull down the handle in the rear so that the hatch opened fully . When closing the hatch , the gunner just pulled the rear handle down until he could latch the hatch . The gunner had a folding pedestal to stand on when behind the machine gun . Operationally , any time the gun was mounted , the gunner had to be behind it whether the vehicle was moving or not . As initially produced , the vehicle was equipped with a gasoline - powered Mopar engine . This proved to be too powerful , leading to speeding incidents and accidents . It also proved to be too prone to overheating . In practice the vehicle crew would spend many hours parked with the engine idling and the air conditioning on . This was especially true during the long hot days of the short northern plains summers ( sundown at Minot AFB North Dakota is between 10 : 00 pm and 11 : 00 pm during the summer ) where most of Strategic Air Command ' s ICBM bases and several of its bomber bases were located . As the 360 cubic inch Mopars failed , they were replaced with gasoline - powered Mopars , though a few vehicles did receive diesel engines . The original grill made up of a series of interlocking inverted " V " s designed to catch incoming bullets and direct them down away from the radiator . It was found that this restricted air flow enough to also contribute to the overheating problems , so a new " Summer " grill with unrestricted air flow was installed on some vehicles . The " Summer " grill offered no protection for the radiator but by the time they were installed it was realized that the vehicles were expendable . The Ranger / Peacekeeper really did not need the protection , because they only had to survive long enough to get the fire team to the fight , or the convoy being protected out of one . The vehicle was originally equipped with foam - filled " run flat " tires . These , however , caused control problems when operated for extended periods of time at highway speeds ( ) . The foam in the tires would heat up and liquefy , throwing the wheels out of balance ; if this happened to all four at the same time the driver could lose control and roll over . By 1990 all of the foam - filled tires had been replaced with tubeless pneumatic types . While the vehicle was mechanically four wheel drive , its off - road capability was nil ( the four wheel drive provided for extra traction in the excessive snow of the northern plains winters ) . In fact , United States Air Force Space Command ordered that any P . K . operated on a gravel road not exceed ; on some of the worst roads , drivers would slow down further to or slower . Tactically the vehicle would pull up to a hostile area , with one of the two front corners pointed at the area of incoming fire . The machine gunner would lay down suppressive fire and the grenadier would deploy from the rear of the vehicle to an area of cover . Once under cover the grenadier would also lay down suppressive fire for the rest of the crew . The next person to dismount from the vehicle would be either the driver or passenger ( who ever was on the side of the vehicle not taking fire ) . If that member was the fire team leader , he would follow the grenadier ' s example and seek a position of cover and lay down suppressive fire ; if it was the assistant gunner he would take cover behind the engine compartment and wait for the gunner , in order to assist him with his ammunition . The last person out would be the machine gunner ; once out he and the assistant gunner would move together to a tactical position . Peacekeeper II . The Peacekeeper II is a heavily modified version of the Peacekeeper , is being marketed to law enforcement agencies across the country to fight increasingly well - armed criminals in high - crime areas . The Peacekeeper II , using a General Motors or Ford pickup truck chassis and auto parts , has automatic transmission , power steering and brakes , air conditioning and heat and four - wheel drive , as well as tires that can operate for up to 30 miles if punctured . Peacekeeper II armor is a half - inch thick . Cadillac - Gage wanted to build 200 of the $ 170 , 000 Peacekeeper II vehicles a year . It takes 15 to 50 workers to build each one , said Clay Moise , Textron ' s vice president of marine and combat vehicles . No peacekeeper IIs were sold and it is no longer being offered . Cadillac - Gage Ranger in popular culture . The Cadillac - Gage Commando Ranger appeared in the following movies :