Replies

CENTCOM up-armored Humvee requirements being met

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 6, 2004) -- Despite the misconception of some members of Congress and the media who have raised the issue in recent weeks, the Army is meeting Central Command’s requirements for up-armored Humvees for operations in Iraq and doing it in a timely manner, according to Maj. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III, commanding general for the Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.

Shipments [of Armor Survivability Kits] are about two weeks ahead of the delivery schedule agreed upon with CENTCOM, Thompson said, and we expect that trend to get even better.

Thanks for the post. I missed the article until you tagged it. I think in the field the article is called a puff piece. It was written by his department (note bottom reference) and says essentially its not my fault because we didn't get the purchase request from Centcom and now Centcom has agreed to take what we produce because they miscalculated the need last year. Of course this is at odds with Centcom statements in Nov-Dec. about their immediate need. So be it. Based on these numbers armored humvee needs will be filled by summer 05, the 5000 retrofit kit is for the year not the total request of 8300 and if the depots are making 1000 every 3 months then we are about a year to year and a half out on it. Then there are the 3500 odd trucks to kit as well but they almost certainly won't be addressed until 05. Also the fact that just about every unit has been stripped of armored humvees around the world to fill the gap in production isn't mentioned.

I would have preferred this General to say we got the request for production late, we are meeting our stated schedule and we will far exceed it within months by bringing in private contractors and pushing our primary contractors all out for 6 months until the problem is solved. I would be standing on the table cheering if he did that. Instead we will take several more hundred casualties over the coming months that just didn't have to happen and the general uses his PR folks to resolve his perceived problem of PR with Congress. I wish he would see the problem as one of production and get on with it. This is a fixable problem and he can fix it.