THE FACTS ON HUMVEE ARMOR

Thursday, Lieutenant General R. Steven Whitcomb,Commander, Third Army "Patton's Own," and Coalition Forces Land Component Command, answered some questions, regarding the armoring of vehicles in Iraq, including humvess.

"Congress has provided in the neighborhood of about $1.2 billion since last year strictly to armor our vehicles"

"Up-armored humvees... is a vehicle that is produced in a factory back in the United States and it essentially gives you protection, both glass and on the armament on the side, front, rear, sides, top and bottom. If you'll think of a protection in a bubble, that's kind of what the level-one up- armored humvee gives you."

"Back in August of 2003, we were producing about 30 of those vehicles a month. We're in the category now of over 400 per month being produced. The requirement that we've got from Multinational Corps Iraq and Multinational Force Iraq, General Casey and General Tom Metz, are for about 8,100 up-armored humvees. We've provided a little under 6,000 up-armored humvees to the force to date."

(Started using) "add-on kits that we might be able to produce that gave that vehicle additional protection.We call that level-two armor, and it's better known probably most places as add-on armor. It is factory produced, so it's built under controlled conditions, and then it's either -- can be put on back in the states. But we've got 10 sites here in the theater, a couple here in Kuwait, and eight sites up in Iraq itself where we can bolt on, add this armor to existing unarmored vehicles. It gives you protection front, rear and sides, glass. It does not give protection at the top or at the bottom of the vehicle. So it gives you better than what you have with no protection on a humvee, but not quite the level-one protection."

"We looked at a stop-gap measure, a bridge, if you will, till we got the factory-produced level two and the level one protection for our vehicles, and that's what we call level-three hardening.(It consists of) taking steel plates that have been approved, make sure that they've got the type of minimal protection. Our real focus for the level-three armor is not the humvees, it's really the series of trucks that the Army uses in combat operations."

"Right now...we've got about 30,000 wheeled vehicles in our theater -- in Iraq and Afghanistan and other areas." level one, about 6,000 vehicles; level two, about 10,000 vehicles; almost 4,500 vehicles that have the level- three protection 8,000 (vehicles) do not have some type of armor protection on them.

"Of those vehicles that don't, some number of them are things like tool trucks, communication vans or vehicles that don't leave the base camp. In other words, they're trucked up into Iraq -- or in cases before what we're doing now, were driven up into Iraq -- and they go onto a base camp, and that's where they spend most of their time."

"The humvee was a vehicle that was not designed to afford armor protection, nor were most of our trucks. They were designed as cargo carriers. The only up-armored humvees, the high-end ones, we had were for our military police forces. They were not for use by -- as we see them used today with the numbers of forces."

"Add-on armoring runs anywhere from about a thousand pounds of steel plating up to about 4,000 pounds of additional weight. So a lot of our vehicles, as you point out, are not designed -- their engines aren't designed to carry perhaps an additional ton of weight, the suspension and the transmission."

"I am not seeing constraints on resources that are -- allow us to do that, with the exception of, as I say, level one and -- primarily because you're producing vehicles and a certain amount of law of physics is involved here. It's not necessarily just money; it's a production capacity to be able to build more."

"When you combine the 6,000 and the almost 10,000, we're in relatively good shape humvee- wise."

"The other thing that we've got -- and I won't talk about it because it is very sensitive -- is we're leveraging technology, how to detect where IEDs are, who's using them, how they're being set off and those kinds of things so we could go out there early and kill those guys before they're able to execute."

Regarding the soldier who asked Secretary Rumsfeld the armor question, General Whitcomb said: "What I think Specialist Wilson(soldier that popped the humvee question on Rumsfeld) was probably talking about is going through a facility that we've got that takes vehicles of two types; one, it takes vehicles that have been hit in combat and can't be fixed in Iraq and we bring them back here into Kuwait and we either fix them or we take parts off them that we can use. And some of those parts may, in fact, be the level-three armor, the steel plating that we either take off and put into stacks that we'll reuse, or that my suspicion -- and it's a suspicion only -- is that Specialist Wilson and his crew came in and found a vehicle or found some of that stuff and was taking it to add on to their vehicles."

Armor Holdings (AH:NYSE) said it could boost its output of "up-armored" Humvees by as much as 22 percent per month to 550 from 450 now.

CASSPIR

The Casspir, an anagram of the acronyms SAP (SA Police) and CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) was designed in the late 1970s and introduced into police and later military service in the 1980s. It was at first extensively used by the infamous "Koevoet" police counterinsurgency unit in northern Namibia during the apartheid era and later also by the Southwest African Territory Force's 101 Battalion and the SA Army's 5 Reconnaissance Regiment. Today it is used as a troop carrier for the motorised infantry. Several are also deployed with peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Casspir, built by Denel / Mecham, has been in use in South Africa for over 20 years. It is a 4-wheeled armored vehicle, used for transport of troops. It can hold a crew of two, plus 12 additional soldiers and associated gear. The Casspir is unique in design, providing for passive mine defense. The main body of the vehicle is raised above the ground, so that if a mine is detonated, the explosion is less likely to to damage the crew compartment and kill the occupants. The vehicle is also armored for added mine safety, as well as protection from small arms fire.

The Casspir was ubiquitous during the days of Apartheid in South Africa. It was seen widely in the townships for crowd and riot control.

Refurbished Casspirs are now being sold to other countries, including 90 to India. In India they will be used for counter-insurgency operations, paricularly int he the Kasmir region to the North. Each refurbished vehicle was sold for approximately $120K (US).

A requirement from the Police, who were patrolling borders infested with armed insurgents in 1983, led to the development of the Casspir, possibly the first successful monocoque mine-protected vehicle. With a very high level of protection, the Casspir proved to be ideal in the bush, as its height offered an excellent view and the low centre of gravity made it very stable. The big advantage which the Casspir had over the numerous other mine protected vehicles in use at that time was that it could be repaired quickly and cheaply after a landmine detonation.

The Casspir is a mine-protected armoured personnel carrier that was originally developed for the counter-insurgency units of the police. It was later adopted by the SWA Territory Force and also by some elements of the SA Army. It weighs 10.88 tons and is powered by a 124 kW turbo-charged diesel engine that gives it a road speed of 98 km/h. It has a range of 770 km. The Casspir is normally armed with a single 7,62 mm machine-gun or two 7,62 mm weapons. Later Casspirs mounted 20 mm cannon. There is a firing port opposite each seat. The armour is proof against small-arms fire, and the V-shaped hull protects it from landmine blasts. Doors in the rear of the hull allow easy access. The Casspir is highly regarded for its outstanding cross-country mobility and for its reliability.

The Casspir mine-protected vehicle (MPV) was one of the first to use the V-shaped monocoque hull and is undoubtedly one of the world's leaders in its field with over 2000 in service in several countries and an enviable record as a life preserver in mine incidents. Several variants are currently in service, all of which include triple mine protection of the occupants.

Originally developed for the rigorous conditions of South Africa where a very high mine threat was prevalent, Casspir is certified to protect its occupants against the effects of a triple TM-57 mine blast (equivalent to 21kg of TNT) under any wheel, or a double mine (14kg of TNT) anywhere under the hull. Casspir offers higher degrees of field reparability after mine detonations than any other MPV in service. The Casspir hull consists of a welded all-steel monocoque capsule to which the highly-effective leaf-spring suspension is attached, and within which the main automotive and other components and protection to both occupants and main components are housed to facilitate rapid field repair.

In standard APC configuration Casspir has two pneumatically operated rear doors and a partially open roof with hatches above the driver and co-driver's positions. A full armoured roof with hatches is available as an option. A variety of weapons can be mounted and firing ports are fitted below or in the armoured windows for the employment of personal weapons. Casspir is equipped with a powerful Mercedes Benz OM 352 A engine and a manual 4-speed transmission delivering drive to all four wheels. The functional layout of the engine components facilitates ease of maintenance and repair. Casspir's mine protection and field reparability are legendary and it is currently the only general purpose MPV in service with a triple mine protection level that includes main components. These factors, inter alia, lead to Casspir being the MPV of choice for several forces and for organisations employed in humanitarian operations (including mine clearing) in mine-infested areas.

Standard ballistic protection is against 7.62 x 51 mm NATO ball ammunition, whilst protection against armour-piercing ammunition and the TMRP-5 self forming fragment mine is also available as an option. With a maximum speed of 90 km/h and excellent cross country ability, Casspir offers better-than-average mobility for a vehicle in this class and a versatility to enhance the capabilities of a variety of forces in different terrain types.

The SA Army has embarked on a R164 million programme to upgrade and refurbish its ageing fleet of Casspir Mark II mine-protected vehicles. Armscor, the defence force's arms agency, awarded the upgrade contract to Benoni-based Alvis OMC. The upgrade and refurbishment of the Casspir MKII to MK III status would include structural modifications for increased mobility with more robust axles and was aimed at extending the life of the vehicles. It would also increase the reliability of vehicles for the remainder of their service lif. Alvis OMC would refurbish the vehicles while Alvis Gear Ratio would supply licence-manufactured axles. The Casspir (has) demonstrated unparalleled performance and reliability. This structured upgrade is an opportunity for us to attend to each vehicle individually and to make the necessary modifications for extended life and reliability.

Capacity:
Weight:
Speed:
Fuel:
Range:
Armament: 2 + 12 + 1800kg
11,800kg
70kph
Diesel
500km
Up to 3, 7.63mm MGs

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/rsa/casspir.htm

http://www.jedsite.info/4x4afv/charlie/casspir_series/casspir-series.html

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Well? How about it. The Casspir is a proven design, another off-the-shelf masterpiece, with a twenty-year record of service. If you do some Googling, you'll find there are a ton of used one's being sold by the South Africans and India is manufacturing a line of them for service in Kashmir. They are also comparatively cheap and easy to fix. They incorporate the V-shaped, mine-deflecting hull shape. We could buy every damn one of these, and recondition them, plus get started on our own version, faster and cheaper than up-armoring Humvees. All Rummy has to do is say "make it so." Are they perfect? No. A MASSIVE IED will do em in, an RPG can penetrate them but they are mine-resistant and proof against small arms fire and they handle well off-road. So what's stopping us? Any legislator who tries to play pork-barrel or Not-Invented-Here with this issue could be taken to the woodshed, given the current climate.

I'm not familiar with that particular vehicle, but it certainly sounds like an APC...which is not the need we have. I honestly don't think there is a vehicle that has ever been designed for what we need...because no one has ever designed a vehicle (to my knowledge) as an armored peacekeeping vehicle. It most likely combines most of the features of a scout/recon vehicle in terms of visibility, situational awareness, and firepower with a few (~3 or 4) troops or some cargo capacity. You really don't want to try to navigate a huge APC with room for 12 passengers down city streets.

If you tried some of the links and got a look at it you would see the Casspir was primarily designed as an armoured po-lice/troop carrier and was designed for both urban and off-road scenarios in a slew of versions (weapons carrier, ambulance, cargo, etc) hard-topped and open-topped varieties and is a lot more manuverable in narrow streets and rutted rural roads than a Stryker, in addition to being a hell of a lot cheaper, more mine resistant and easier to transport and repair in the field. The Stryker is already legendary for it's ridiculous awkward bulk. As the Casspir was much a hated symbol of apartheid as the sjambok whip the South Africans have been trying to unload them cheap.

There is still the matter of all those several thousand M113's languishing in stateside depots (again, not a perfect solution but more mobile than up-armored humvees and guaranteed to at least keep out bullets). And there is still the suggestion that Col. Dave Hackworth floated in one of his columns about gathering up all of Saddam's leftover BTR's, BMP's, and BRDM's along with all the spare parts, weapons and ammo remaining, hiring abundant local iraqi mechanical and engineering talent and putting them back in working order. Again, not elegant, chrome-plated high-tech solutions but relatively quick to hand and bullet resistant and very much effective at reducing the coffins at Dover and the maimed and crippled at Bethesda and Walter Reed.

We should move ahead on all these fronts to implement a stop-gap solution and request design submissions for some bells-and-wheels pu**ywagon at our leisure.

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