Posted on 12/14/2004 4:35:20 AM PST by StoneGiant
One reason for the Iraq armor shortage: The military is too thorough
Source: OpinionJournal, 12/14/2004
Hunter's Gun Truck
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 12:01 a.m.
A few weeks ago Rep. Duncan Hunter handed me a reason that has largely escaped media attention on why our troops in Iraq don't have all the armor protection they need. It was a piece of ballistic glass, roughly the size of a small dinner plate. But as it was four sheets of glass glued together, it was also very thick and extremely heavy. But I peered through it, and it was as transparent as a normal windshield. In Iraq, this glass is saving lives because it can stop bullets and shrapnel from roadside bombs.
The problem, the House Armed Services Committee chairman explained, is that a ballistic windshield is too heavy for some of the military's vehicles. The window frames simply cannot support it without being reinforced. In many instances that means the soldiers are driving vehicles with regular windshields as the bureaucracy works out the logistics of sending over vehicles that can handle ballistic windshields or finds a way to retrofit the vehicles now in theater. It's this waiting that has unnerved Mr. Hunter.
While the troops wait, he complained, the military could install two-inch-thick ballistic glass--half as thick as is optimal. Nearly every vehicle could support the weight of this slimmed-down ballistic glass, and it would likely stop 80% of the shrapnel that penetrates ordinary windshields. But the military is loath to adopt an interim, if imperfect, remedy. It prefers to wait for the "100% solution," Mr. Hunter said. In other words, in military procurement, the perfect has become the enemy of the good.
In addition to ballistic glass, Mr. Hunter has been pushing the military to armor their vehicles. At the very least, he says, soldiers should be given steel plates they can cut for makeshift doors for their humvees. He even made a short video demonstrating how to do it. All soldiers would need is the steel, a couple of piano hinges, a few bolts and an acetylene torch. He was able to bolt on two doors in just two hours. (You can watch the video here.) Yet somehow the military isn't getting this done either.
This is not the only problem that has somehow escaped media scrutiny, even in the wake of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld being put on the spot last week. Insurgent attacks come across on the nightly news as random acts of violence. But in Iraq, the enemy is relatively sophisticated in his target selection. The insurgents have not been very successful openly attacking well-armored vehicles. After all, American soldiers shoot back. So insurgents have turned to going after convoys. Convoy trucks are not as well armored as they need to be, the drivers are alone in their cabs and therefore are unable to fight back, and, depending on what is being hauled, setting a truck alight can result in a massive explosion that is sure to attract media attention.
Cutting supply lines is a classic guerrilla tactic, but what's happening in Iraq is the insurgents have figured out where the soft underbelly is for a military still built to fight other large armies with relatively fixed battle lines. The military is bolting armor onto convoy trucks that pick up supplies in Kuwait and haul them into Iraq. But some of the trucks that carry supplies from nearby depots inside Iraq to frontline troops aren't being armored up because they don't make it to the armor supply centers in Kuwait.
Hunter's Gun Truck
One way to deter attacks on convoy trucks is to send along armored escorts. But there aren't enough armored vehicles to go around, so some soldiers earlier this year started using plywood, sandbags and any scrap metal they can find to armor up their trucks--"hillbilly armor." Mr. Hunter's office came up with an interim solution for this, too. By bolting a few plates of high-grade steel, ballistic glass and four machine guns onto a truck, his staff was able to convert a regular truck into an escort vehicle that can take on attacking insurgents. The Army initially resisted these gun trucks, saying they weren't needed. But now a handful of them are in Iraq, with more to be delivered Christmas Eve.
There has also been a few notable successes in forcing the military procurement system to function properly. Before redeploying for Iraq last March, the Marines pulled out all the stops--including a few visits to steel mills--to put at least some armor on all the vehicles they shipped over there. Through the Rapid Fielding Initiative, the Pentagon distributed a new type of body armor that first saw combat in Afghanistan to nearly every soldier in Iraq. For outstanding needs, Rapid Acquisition Authority was signed into law in October. This empowers the secretary of defense to spend up to $100 million a year to go outside of the normal procurement system to meet urgent battlefield needs. So far no battlefield commander has requested this power to be invoked.
Mr. Rumsfeld stirred up a hornet's nest last week by saying, "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have." He's right. We cannot afford to make the mistake George McClellan did in the Civil War, endlessly preparing for war but not doggedly going after the enemy. Our soldiers deserve the best equipment and training money can buy. And that includes the best equipment they can use now, instead of waiting around for something better. Sometimes what's good enough today is better than what would be perfect sometime down the road.
Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com. His column appears Tuesdays.
Some time ago, I learned (either here or on Fox news) the reason hummers and trucks weren't armored, and definitely not armored for front line use. They were not intended for front line use!!!
Trucks and hummers are support vehicles. yes a hummer can be uparmored with a turtle back, and mount a .50-cal ring on top, but that is intended for a recon/scout role where speed and a low profile is requred. The rolling stock that is getting hammered by IEDs and RPGs are intended for rear area support functions. The tanks and maybe the Bradly fighting vehicles are front line combat vehicles.
I remember seeing heavy armored hummers at military trade shows years ago. They were "nice to haves," expensive, contract offerings, and likely too expensive for a peacetime military budget.
Be patient, times change and with it minds. It will get sorted out.
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Just the thing for rush-hour traffic!
}:-)4
The tanks and maybe the Bradly fighting vehicles are front line combat vehicles.
I remember the Bradley from the movie "The Pentagon Wars". You're not the actor Kelsey Grammar in real life, are you?
" There has also been a few notable successes ..."
I hate to be nit-picky, but is there an agreement problem here?
How quickly does the military anticipate getting the 100 percent solution? If it is very soon, one can understand their reluctance to do a halfway job, then have to undo it at more expense, and redo it again. OTOH, next week is not soon enough if you are on the line.
Oh GOD I hope not! After all, there is the Lilith factor!
Yikes!
The Pentagon Wars is a favorite though. Having spent some time there in an earlier life, their "bent" is not too hard to ken.
Cheers,
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