Posted on 06/13/2006 9:31:58 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
Thousands of pounds of armor added to military Humvees in Iraq have made the vehicles more likely to roll over and kill or injure soldiers, a newspaper reported.
"I believe the up-armoring has caused more deaths than it has saved," Scott Badenoch, a former Delphi Corp. vehicle dynamics expert, told the Dayton Daily News for its Sunday editions.
An analysis of the Army's ground-accident database, which includes records from March 2003 through November 2005, found that 60 of the 85 soldiers who died in Humvee accidents in Iraq -- or about 70 percent -- were killed when the vehicle rolled, the newspaper said. Of the 337 injuries, 149 occurred in rollovers.
There are more than 25,300 armored Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
When Humvees roll, the most vulnerable passenger is the gunner, the soldier who operates the weapon mounted atop the vehicle.
Gunners were killed in at least 27 of the 93 fatal Humvee accidents since 2001, according to the newspaper's analysis.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Are you wailers and teeth-gnashers happy now?
The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
Looked at objectively, this info highlights the need for a replacement vehicle for the Humvee. The Humvee was never intended to be anything more than a bigger, more versatile jeep. If urban warfare is the trend of the future then the Army needs something better.
No. Looked at "objectively," this information highlights the stupidity of liberals, the press, and various nitwits who thought it was a good idea to begin with.
EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle would fit the bill.
This article beautifully illustrates the difference between fraud and creative fraud.
First of all the article doesn not state what percentage of those rollovers were in vehicles that had actually been upgraded with additional armor.
Since the upgrading took longer than many wished, it is unlikely that many upgraded vehicles actually were involved in 2003 and most of 2004...
An article with an agenta, obviously...
I prefer the car from "Spy Hunter" myself.
It was a good idea to begin with and if you recall the Army had already uparmored some of it's Humvees prior to the outcry from the press.
Don't credit the loonies with the idea that more armor on the Humvee would give more protection to the troops. They can only take credit for blaming the Army that it was deliberately killing it's soldiers because they didn't instantly and magically uparmor every Humvee.
The laws of physics are unimpressed with politics.
Agenta.....a purplish-red agenda?
How long until the MSM Drive By media types begin demanding that these humvees not have so much armor on them?
You beat me to it.
Sometime between now and November.
"hatchet job" & "CBS" mentioned together is redundant...
Yes...and it wasn't just the media. Folks were going on the about the REMF and Pentagon "paper pushers" who wold allow donated armor plates to be added to vehicles immediately.
As I said then, adding armor changes the driving characteristics and gas mileage...a few extra gallons of gas in each HMMWV adds a huge fuel requirement to the AOR.
carbon bucky balls/tubes could solve this, I think
Just tweek the kick azz suspension,problem solved...if there really is one.
Thanks for the link.
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