Army Steps Up Humvee Orders for Troops in Iraq

nyt ^ | 12/25/03 | FARA WARNER

[Ranger]

ping

[Glenn]

The government has ordered so many of these, you can't buy one right now.

Neatest little ATV on the planet.

[finnman69]

They need screens to keep grenades from being tossed in.

[Ronin]

That sucker is so ugly, it's beautiful. I want one. Of course, I say that about a lot of toys.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Swiss MOWAG Eagle II. The Swiss make armored Humvees. Maybe they would sell us some.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Turkish Cobra

[AdA$tra]

Gotta have at least ONE of those....wow...that IS cool.

[First_Salute]

'Why did they wait this long to order more armored ones?'

Infinitely Stealthy planning?

[Ranger]

I came across this on Col. Hackworth's webpage. It was a message sent to him. Any thoughts as to viability as I have no experience in the area?

Thinking Outside Of The Box Hey readers, whisper this cool idea into your Washington based lawmaker’s ear. - Hack Subject: Armour Greetings Hack, I keep reading about these poor guys get blown to bits in unarmoured vehicles and it should not be happening. I have worked on AH-1 Cobras for ten years know and most of them are going to be scraped you are talking hundreds of them. One thing that is missing in are military from the old days is thinking outside the box, well these cobras have two very, very nice pieces of 2X2 foot ceramic/composite armour plate that bolts on to protect the combustion chamber of the engine, thousands of these are just laying around doing nothing, with the mounting holes they would be very easy to mount it would not be hard trust me and would really do something to protect are guys. Best Regards, Art

[goldstategop]

http://www.hummer.com

If you absolutely have to salute the U.S Army, go ahead and for a mere $53,000 you can park your own H2 in your driveway - just like Arnold!

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Sounds like it ought to work in a variety of applications, especially gun trucks.

Heard anything about that captured vehicle park at Tallil? Seems like an enterprising airborne commander could find some useful machines down there.

[SLB]

We still need to have guys thinking outside of the norm. Until that style becomes the norm I fear we will continue to sputter. A case in point si the unit from Kansas (I believe) that was directed to leave the locally fabricated armor plate behind. Once in theater it could become an asset for others, they come home and leave it for the next unit and so on.

One other little question, are there any float Strykers in country? If the attrition rate continues they will soon have to change the MTOE as they cannot perform all their missions.

[Happy2BMe]

"We still need to have guys thinking outside of the norm."

A week or so ago there was a thread here on FR about some of our troopers modifying HUMVEES in Iraq by putting extra steel plates on the sides for added armor protection.

They were actually REPRIMANDED for doing this by the brass for not asking permission.

During WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam there was one primary survival tool the U.S. soldier had that the enemy could never match - AMERICAN INGENUITY!

We would take M35 cargo trucks, bolt steel plates (found locally many times during the campaign) onto the beds of the truck and then mount M-50 Cal machine guns on them.

These were very fast, lethal and effective fighiting machines against snipers and pockets of enemy troops bushwacking us.

Good case in point is the attempted court-martialling of Lt Col West for being too "rough" on interrogating a known enemy who was known to be aiding those with the direct mission of killing Americans.

We got some house cleaning to do at the Pentagon still.

[Happy2BMe]

"Neatest little ATV on the planet."

Neat, but no armor.

[Ranger]

Knowing what I know, every time I see a H1 on the street, I want to puke. Civilian production has got to be secondary to military needs right now. I really blame the pentagon for not either second sourcing or forcing the accelerated production of uparmored humvees. Every day we are taking WIA and KIA casualties in unarmored humvees. Its ridiculous since there are preventable deaths and injuries.

[Ranger]

Tallman that made that statement would rather see our troops injured or killed in army issue unarmored humvees than see them protected in the best manner those troops see fit with the resources at their disposal. The army hasn't given them the protection they need so modifying the vehicles ad hoc is the only real option most of the troops have right now. Where is 60 minutes when you need them?

[Happy2BMe]

"Where is 60 minutes when you need them?"

Walp, that COMMUNIST SOB Dan Rather has already interviewed Saddam Hussein - so we know they're not there at least.

[archy]

One other little question, are there any float Strykers in country? If the attrition rate continues they will soon have to change the MTOE as they cannot perform all their missions.

Who would want any? Remember that the original idea was to have the C-130-transportable Strykers available to be shuttled around in-theater as hot spots developed or were quenched, but once the weight of the add-on composite armor plates and *slat armor* anti-rpg cage was added, pushing their on-road weight up to nearly 25 tons [on axles designed for 15] the things have become roadbound pigs, armed with only a .50 machinegun, that jams because of feed problems not with the gun, but from the vehicle's mount.

The alternative is a C130 load of hopefuly armored Humvees with a working M2 .50 facing forward, and backup gunners covering the sides with 7,62mm M240 machineguns or 5.56mm M249 Squad Auto Weaponss, and an M16/M203 40mm gunner or two. Which would you want coming to back you up....

-archy-/-

[Terabitten]

There's another advantage to the M1114 Humvee. IT HAS AIR CONDITIONING! The AC was added because the glass is some sort of ballistic protective stuff. The glass on my uparmored humvee in Bosnia was about an inch and a half thick. You're supposed to ride with the windows up for maximum protection. Obviously, with the windows up, you need AC!

One other advantage, for some reason the TC seat doesn't get as hot. On a regular humvee, after a couple hours, the front passenger seat is freakin' HOT from the batteries right under it. Never seemed to have that problem in an uparmored.