Props to my boy Mike Goldfarb over at the Worldwide Standard blog who hoodwinked management into loosening the purse strings for a trip to the AUSA symposium in Ft. Lauderdale.
Hes got some great coverage of the various offerings from top military vehicle manufacturers like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Force Protection for the so-called Mine Resistant Ambush Protected tactical vehicle program. The MRAP has become a top priority for commanders and their patrons on Capitol Hill, who finally recognize that the Humvee was never built to be a tactical vehicle and is ill-suited for explosive resistance upgrades.
After years of adding more and more armor to the Humvee, which was originally built as a logistics vehicle, the camels back snapped; just ask a mechanic down at the motor pool whos been working all night on Humvees gone Tango Uniform from the last patrol. So the services particularly the Army and Marine Corps began to slip in requests to Congress for more MRAPs. Previously, the MRAP was used mostly for explosive ordnance disposal teams and other specialized units.
Now it looks as if the services want to build on the fiscal and rhetorical momentum by grabbing as many MRAPs as they can before they go into full-scale development of the next-generation Humvee: the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which could take years to test and field.
Manufacturers from around the country are scrambling to fill the Army and Marine Corps MRAP orders, and the Armys Aberdeen Proving Ground is set to begin evaluating vehicle prototypes this month for rapid fielding to Iraq.
– Christian
“a top priority for commanders and their patrons on Capitol Hill, who finally recognize that the Humvee was never built to be a tactical vehicle and is ill-suited for explosive resistance upgrades“
All the people who had to use the Humvee saw this from the start. Maybe R&D should look at the platoon or squad level to find out what “real” soldiers think about equipment. The fat cats in Congress and the officers getting ready to retire and go work for a defense contractor are just making money with the blood of those who do “the job”
I’m happy to see the return of the International Travelall.
http://www.31alumni.com/31-production-unit.jpg
Billons of dollars spent maybe even trillons, all to find out the equipment we have is lacking! Just look at the m249 SAW, the M-4 carbine, humvee’s,the tracks on the m1a1 abrhams tank. Every weapon system we have seems to have flaws and short comings. Is there any weapon system that we [ United States] has that works? or doesn’t have to be rebuilt or improved upon by a foriegn manufacturer? All this many wasted!
big snout in this truck. I seen lots of vids of IEDs blowing up the front seat of humvees — I wonder what the concussion from and IED is like in one of these. Does look way more infantry-friendly in the Iraqi environs than the humvee.
It took the war in Iraq to find design flaws in our military’s transport system. There is no substitute for actual field-test of equipment to see what works and what does not. The enemy are clever we can’t afford to under estimate their resiliency and resourcefulness. And fortunately, we have the abilities and capabilties to change and adapt to rapidly changing battlefield conditions. But not rapid enough for those who paid for their lives for those earlier flaws.