Extra armor causing Humvee doors to trap troops

[GreatAmerican]

Kits to fix the problem were included in vetoed bill

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/gns_humvees_070507/

The Army is fixing the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in Iraq because the doors can jam shut during an attack and trap soldiers inside, Pentagon records and interviews show.

The door trouble, the latest in a series of problems with the Humvees since the Iraq war began, is an unintended consequence of the Pentagon’s effort to add armor to protect troops from makeshift bombs. Improvised explosive devices are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq, causing 70 percent of injuries and deaths. Armored Humvees, the primary troop transport vehicle, are often targeted by insurgents who plant bombs on roads....

 

[GreatAmerican]

The Army and MC should stop wasting resources on Humvees and move on to MRAPs or a succesor vehicle.

Budget impact may hold up money for MRAP

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/04/ap_mrap_070428/

The armored carrier has a grim black slash across its side, burn marks on the door and a web of cracks along the window.

Like most of the Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in Anbar province, this one has been hit as many as three times by enemy fire and bomb blasts. Yet, to date, no American troops have died while riding in one....

Marines point out blast marks on their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles to media during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Camp Falluja on April 19. To date no U.S. troops have been killed while riding in the MRAPs in the Iraq war.

 

[GreatAmerican]

Gates urges ramping up MRAP acquisition

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/05/defense_mrap_070509/

Describing the current situation on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan as “urgent,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is calling upon to Pentagon and service leaders to buy and field more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles as soon as possible.

A May 2 letter from Gates to top Pentagon officials says “the MRAP should be considered the highest priority Department of Defense acquisition program,” and calls for the immediate application of “any and all options to accelerate the production and fielding of this capability.”...

 

[GreatAmerican]

Troops in Iraq get safer vehicle

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-09-gates-mrap_N.htm

The Pentagon will phase out its armored Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan and send in vehicles that better withstand roadside bomb blasts, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Replacing the Humvee, the military's main troop-transport vehicle, will be the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, known as an MRAP. Military officials say the new vehicles provide twice as much protection against improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which cause 70% of all U.S. casualties in Iraq.

Armored Humvees were "the best we had," Gates said. "Now we have something better, and we're going to get that to the field as best we can."...

 

[GreatAmerican]

Army to make request for 17,000 MRAPs

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/army_humvee_070509w/

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren confirmed today that the Army is set to substantially increase the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles it had planned to buy, replacing within two years the 17,700 Humvees now in Iraq.

“The earlier plan was 2,500, and that’s not enough. I can’t tell you the exact number at this point, but it’s going to grow considerably,” Geren said, indicating that the Army is working to adjust its budget and to determine industry’s capacity to produce more MRAPs....

The Army's expected request for 17,000 of the V-hulled, blast-resistant MRAP vehicles raises questions about the future of the Humvee in the service.

 

[GreatAmerican]

Corps disputes charge of MRAP foot dragging

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/05/marine_mrap_070523/

The Marine Corps did not drag its feet in its search for blast-proof vehicles requested by troops in Iraq, and was initially constrained by industry’s ability to build them, Corps acquisition officials said Wednesday.

The officials were responding to recent media reports that accused the Corps of waiting to address an urgent request from the field made in February 2005. The media reports prompted Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to publicly call on the Bush administration to make the production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles a top priority....

The Marine Corps on May 23 disputed a report that there had been a delay in Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

 

[GreatAmerican]

Biden calls for probe of Corps’ MRAP response

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/marine_biden_mrap_070524/

A senator has called for an investigation into what he calls the Corps’ belated response to an urgent request from the field for blast-proof vehicles in Iraq.

Recent media reports have prompted Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to publicly call on the Bush administration to make the production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles a top priority. He is also calling for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, along with the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, to probe the issue....

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., has sent an open letter to the president asking him to make MRAP production a national priority.

 

[GreatAmerican]

Corps orders 1,200 MRAPs

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/05/defense_MRAPorder_070531m/

The Marines have ordered 1,200 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles from International Military and Government, company officials said. The $623 million purchase is the largest to date in a joint program that has since 2003 ordered roughly 1,700 of the armored vehicles and is slated to order a total of 23,200 by 2010.

The firm, a subsidiary of Navistar International, was one of nine vehicle makers asked by Marine Corps Systems Command to deliver test vehicles in January....

 

[GreatAmerican]

MRAPs may need extra armor to face EFPs

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/05/gns_mrap_070531/

New military vehicles that are supposed to better protect troops from roadside explosions in Iraq aren’t strong enough to withstand the latest type of bombs used by insurgents, according to Pentagon documents and military officials.

As a result, the vehicles need to have more armor added to them, according to a January Marine Corps document provided to USA Today. The Pentagon faced the same problem with its Humvees at the beginning of the war....

 

[GreatAmerican]

Pentagon approves accelerated MRAP production

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/07/ap_mraps_070703/

The Pentagon has approved a speedup in production of mine-resistant vehicles to provide troops with greater protection against roadside bombs in Iraq, officials said Tuesday.

In a statement the Pentagon later corrected, Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference that a Joint Staff group had approved buying more than 20,000 of the vehicles. Other officials said later that no specific new number was approved....

 

[GreatAmerican]

DoD repeatedly balked at pleas for MRAPs

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/07/gns_mrap_070716/

Pfc. Aaron Kincaid, 25, had been joking with buddies just before their armored Humvee rolled over the bomb. His wife, Rachel, later learned that the blast blew Kincaid, a father of two from outside Atlanta, through the Humvee’s metal roof.

Army investigators who reviewed the Sept. 23 attack in Iraq wrote in their report that only providence could have saved Kincaid from dying that day: “There was no way short of not going on that route at that time [that] this tragedy could have been diverted.”...

 

[GreatAmerican]

Marine Corps orders 1,170 MRAPs

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/07/defense_MRAPorder_070713/

Stewart and Stevenson Tactical Systems, a division of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Armor Holdings, has received a $518.5 million order to deliver 1,170 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles by February, Marine Corps Systems Command announced July 13.

The SysCom contract award calls for 1,154 14-ton, 4X4 Category I vehicles and 16 larger 24-ton, 6X6 Category II MRAPs. The contract, the Marines’ largest MRAP order to date, brings the total number of MRAPs ordered to 4,935 since the program began last fall....

 

[GreatAmerican]

Fall will be crucial time for MRAP project

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/07/gns_mrap_070720/

The Pentagon should know by September how many Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles it will need for troops in Iraq, the head of the new armored vehicle task force told Congress on Thursday.

John Young told members of two House Armed Services subcommittees that the Pentagon has ordered 6,415 of the so-called MRAP vehicles. By September, after production has increased, the Pentagon will know how many it can build in 2008, he said....

 

[GreatAmerican]

Congress seeks MRAP, shipbuilder cooperation

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/07/defense_mrapshipbuilders_070727/

With the Pentagon giving its highest priority to buying and building more than 21,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, some members of Congress are asking if the crash program will delay naval shipbuilding efforts.

“I'm concerned about the impact that a potential shortage of steel may have on our shipbuilding programs,” Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said Tuesday at a Navy shipbuilding hearing of the House’s Seapower subcommittee. “It is imperative we understand how the consumption of these materials for MRAP will impact other [Defense Department] programs, particularly the shipbuilding programs. There is no reason why we should learn six months from now that another critical platform cannot be delivered or has experienced excessive cost growth because all the steel has gone to MRAP.”...