Posted on 05/03/2006 10:32:57 AM PDT by jmc1969
A new report says that despite stronger armor on over 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year based on Pentagon records.
Most are dying in their Humvees, USA Today reports, as insurgents plant more powerful bombs and use different triggering methods to evade U.S. countermeasures, experts tell the newspaper.
According to Pentagon casualty reports, 67 U.S. troops have died this year in roadside bomb attacks on their Humvees, and another 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers.
That's up from 27 in Humvees — and an additional 38 deaths involving IED attacks on other vehicles — during the first four months of 2005, USA Today notes, using Pentagon and the newspaper's Iraq war casualty database. Roadside bombs also killed more troops in Afghanistan, USA Today reports, with 10 killed this year, compared with one in the first four months of 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
A Humvee is not a tank, it's not an APC and it should not be used as such.
No freaking doubt. They took the place of Jeeps, not APCs.
Note to the AP:
War is dangerous and people will die.
A little armor on a jeep, does not a tank make.
What you said.
Thank you. The HMMV is not an APC.
Never send a hummer to do a M113's job.
You mean the Bradley, right? 113's are light aluminum boxes on treads. A 7.62 NATO round will go straight through it the long way.
Even the later upgrades with the "spalling pads" aren't too much more resistant, and their floors aren't really armored.
"Sorry but 67 deaths in the cruel mathematics of war is militarily insignificant"
Grim, but true.
It's also irrelevant to journalists who need to report defeat wherever they think they can find it. It's not even a good story; at its core, the story is really "soldiers killed in war zone".
Oh, I dunno...I spent alot of time in '577s. As I recall the '113-family rear ramp/door is pretty thick- weighs several hundred lbs, with engine up front. Side-to-side though...no doubt a burly rifle round'll penetrate. We used to joke that there was more protection from the bank of beefy radios bolted to the wall than from the vehicle hull.
Not that I think they would survive a 152mm-scale IED, mind you...
Exactly, Mega dittos.
What is the top effective speed of an up-armored Humvee compared to a conventional unit?
Sacrificing speed for armor is not always a smart move. Unfortunately, it is politicians making this call, and kids are getting killed as a result.
AP is using rhetorical devices again to cover up the truth...the title to this is misleading.
checking statistics comparable to prior years...combat related deaths, incluing IED's is down, but in regard to the deaths occuring in theater the number of deaths related to IEDs has grown as a percentage of the total.
Akin to this example....200 deaths in the month of march, 20 were IEDS's, which is 10%...now change the facts 50 deaths in theater, 15 related to IEDs, that's 30%...so, AP, writes a misleading article to further their quagmire agenda.
The one truth that is universally ignored is that it's a lot quicker, cheaper, and easier to build a bigger IED than it is to up armour anything to the level that would protect it from all threats.
Bingo!
...but our Legacy Media folks cannot and will not comprehend that fact.
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