We have heard of U.S. soldiers taking a bullet for a fellow soldier, but now a new friend took a bullet for a U.S. soldier in Iraq.
The CF-M34 Toughbook laptop you see in the photo above has a bullet hole which shows just how tough it is as it took a bullet for a U.S. soldier in Iraq.
The BULLETPROOF laptop from Panasonic was the constant companion of one soldier and was taken through the mountains of southeastern Turkey and into the war of Iraq.
The need for rugged laptops is growing, used by the U.S. armed forces (the 82nd Airborne Division) and it was one of these laptops that saved a soldier’s life,
An estimated market of $858 million in 2007 is expected for the need of the toughest laptops, people want toughness and the need is growing.
27 responses so far ↓
1 Brett // Feb 11, 2007 at 9:32 am
That’s Tough that the GI’s have to use there computers as body armor.
2 Alex // Feb 11, 2007 at 10:12 am
Yeah.. those things tend to take a beating… I threw one off a roof once… it was funny… it still worked… and it was perfectly okay aside from the fact that it was scratched.
3 Emperor // Feb 11, 2007 at 10:27 am
Well that’s putting the laptop to good use. Here in Europe we build them tough.
4 Canadian Soldier // Feb 11, 2007 at 1:30 pm
This would be my next laptop for sure !
5 Bob // Feb 11, 2007 at 6:25 pm
You want a REAL rugged notebook? These are tougher!
http://www.miltope.com/tsc-750m.html
6 Test Monkey // Feb 11, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I call BS.
Show me the other side.
In my 15 years military and 10 years IT, I’ve shot A LOT of stuff and no piece of IT hardware, EVER, has stopped a bullet.
7 Paul Ascough // Feb 12, 2007 at 12:25 pm
i hate people like you test monkey. ‘10 years in IT and 15 in the military, i know everything! im calling BS. i have no sources, but im calling bullsh*t.’
how about you SUCK MY ***!
8 Mr IT // Feb 12, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I don’t know, I have a couple of old Unisys DS/2 servers here that are probably dense enough to stop anything short of 7.62 AP…..
9 Tony // Feb 13, 2007 at 2:55 am
you call bulls**t? remember these are insurgents that the american military is fighting. they dont have the latest and greatest firearms. he couldve been shot from a long range or even, by the looks of it just a damn handgun.
10 Josh Reiter // Feb 13, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Once knew a friend who’s mom bought him a dedicated word processing station built in the early 80’s from a garage sale. She got it thinking that he could use it at college. We took it out to a field and shot it up with our SKS rifles using Norinco 7.62×39 FMJ (preban). The case of the CPU tower was able to stop those powerful rounds cold. Of course it would be hard to lug around a 70lbs wordprocessor terminal.
If you look closely at the image you can see how the shock of the round transmitted through the keyboard.
11 Plasmafox // Feb 13, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I don’t know guns but I think Tony is right on one thing- it looks like a small caliber round, and aside from that these “hardened” laptops are designed to withstand alot. To testmonkey- You’re right. It most likely went through, but probably dropped alot of inertia going through the laptop. The condition of the keyboard indicates to me that significant energy was absorbed. Any soldier (or anyone who watches mythbusters) knows- NOTHING is “bulletproof”, only “bullet resistant”. I would say that it is fair to say that the laptop saved the soldier’s life if this slowing effect was enough turn turn a lethal shot into a non-lethal one.
12 Sam // Feb 14, 2007 at 3:21 am
Actually, a closer look will show that the laptop was closed when shot, as the keyboard corresponding to the bullet hole is damaged.
13 epoxy404 // Feb 14, 2007 at 3:52 am
I remember seeing this from the 1’st iraq war (still have a poster from a pcmag)its not a b/s pic but it is very old…if i remember right the soldier was sitting in a humvee and got shot through the door with an AK and the door and laptop absorbed the round.. supposedly the toughbook still worked except the screen and keyboard…I bet the ancient gRID fully tempest brick/laptop computers could stop a bullet …maybe not an AK round ….
14 D0d6y // Feb 14, 2007 at 10:00 am
Hey Tony, they have whatever the latest and greatest was 10 years ago when the USA was selling them arms!
15 DI // Feb 14, 2007 at 11:41 am
He’s even more lucky the laptop didn’t burst into flames!
16 Tony Montana // Feb 14, 2007 at 11:54 am
Tony, you would be suprised at what the insurgents have. 7.62 AP rounds are very common on the battle field. The SVDs are a sound sniper rifle and most that have them are very well trained in their use.
As for the bullet stopping laptop, the hole looks more like a fragment from and IED to me. Probably a small peice of metal that entered the vehicle they were riding in and hit the laptop traveling at very low speed at the time of impact.
17 Tim // Feb 14, 2007 at 1:27 pm
To be fair to Test Monkey, there have been quite a few of these stories that have turned out to be BS.
18 PS // Feb 14, 2007 at 1:48 pm
It was probably friendly fire seeing as you idiots are a little trigger happy and can’t stop shooting anything that moves including yourselves. (Oh btw. What moron would throw their pc off a building in the first place.)
19 Messias // Feb 14, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Maybe they threw the bullit?
Or maybe it is just a small rock shot with a sling?
20 Twizted // Feb 14, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Dang Tony you must be one of those new “psychic” CSI guys.. You can tell what type of projectile weapon was used just from a picture showing the entry hole! I wish you were around for the when my car got scratched, I could have gotten the a$$hat that did it using your super sleuth skills!
You and and Test Monkey are both lame and likely just some punk kids behind a keyboard. You should be glad regardless that the laptop saved one of our soldier’s life! period!
Atleast the laptop can be replaced…
21 Nozzleman // Feb 14, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Just saw another article from Popular Science which stated that the round went through the door of an unarmored Humvee before hitting the laptop. That would explain why there wasn’t much energy left in the round. Would also kinda explain why there isn’t a nice round hole as the slug would have deformed after penetrating the door.
22 ZoneDancer // Feb 14, 2007 at 7:34 pm
This is an old story.. I saw that same pic when I was buying a toughbook 3 years ago…
23 GHXDF // Feb 15, 2007 at 2:56 pm
MAYBE 50 CENT SHOULD BE THEIR (TOUGHBOOKS) SPOKESPERSON.
24 Sebastian Hans // Feb 20, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Looks like he shoot down the hole system *ggg*.
25 Albert // Jul 20, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Yo vull un d’aquests portátils.
26 Snooh // Jul 20, 2007 at 1:31 pm
LOL in Europe no one would even imagine takin their IT stuff out of home and shoot it with riffles to see what happens
27 pep // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Lastima de bala.¡Iraqui..despierta ..dispara ..tienes el gringo en casa..!
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