Posted on 05/14/2007 2:48:11 PM PDT by BradtotheBone
WASHINGTON The Bush administration plans to accelerate deliveries of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles for the U.S. military in Iraq. Officials said not one Marine has been killed during 300 IED attacks on MRAPs. They said MRAP's raised, V-shaped underbelly deflected the force of IEDs. In all, the Marines have deployed 65 MRAPs in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said MRAP offered improved troop protection over up-armored Humvees. Gates said MRAP would replace armored Humvees, particularly in the Marine Corps.
"Our experience is that Marines in these vehicles have been four or five times safer than a Marine in an armored Humvee," Gates told members of the House and Senate Sea Power and Expeditionary Forces subcommittees on May 10. "Based on this experience, we recently decided to replace our armored Humvees in theater on a one-for-one basis with MRAPs."
"My understanding is that the army has been recalibrating its interest and has substantially increased the number of these vehicles they think they can use," Gates said.
Officials said the US. military has ordered 7,700 MRAPs in an $8 billion project. Gates has met U.S. Army and Marine Corps officials to explore ways to accelerate deliveries of the 16-ton vehicles.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said MRAP was the result of defense industrial cooperation with the military. But he warned that the vehicle which has been criticized for its huge size would not provide full protection against IEDs.
"There's no solution out there that's going to protect everybody from everything all the time," Pace said. "What you try to do is provide the best protection you can that still allows a soldier [or] Marine to be able to go out and do the job they need to do."
U.S. commanders have urged the Pentagon to increase troop levels to fight the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. On May 11, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander in northern Iraq, asserted that his 3,500 troops were insufficient to quell the insurgency in the Diyala province north of Baghdad.
Mixon, citing a request to Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said the additional troops would be used in the counter-insurgency offensive in Diyala. Diyala also contains 10,000 Iraq Army troops.
"I do not have enough soldiers right now in Diyala province to get that security situation moving," Mixon told a Pentagon briefing.
In rare criticism by a U.S. commander, Mixon said the Iraqi government was not supplying services, which he said was vital in any effort to weaken the insurgents. Mixon said the Diyal government was no longer functioning.
"They are overburdened by a centralized bureaucratic process from Baghdad and impacted by corruption and sectarian issues," Mixon said. "These are areas that we must improve on over the next several months."
Where is the nearest dealership?
Excellent news - Whatever means necessary should be happening 24/7 to get as many MRAPs over there as possible. GOv't is so inefficient at times it is still mind boggling...
That gun turret looks pretty exposed.
If John Corzine had riden in one of thise, he’d be working out of the governor’s mansion instead of from home!
Where’s the funding coming from?
WOW - what a beast.
I’d hate to be a bad guy and see that rolling my way.
Full of our troops....
Treadhead ping.
Even though there aren’t any treads, I thought there’s enough armor to more than make this of interest.
BTW, the treadhead graphic is MIA. I can host it, if someone has it.
Sounds/looks like a great vehicle. Hope we get them deployed FAST! Just watch, now the latest RAT talking point will be that the eviiilll Bush/Cheney cabal did not have 20,000 of these on hand four years ago. Of course, no one in the MSM will bother to ask why RATs in Congress, not to mention the Clintonistas who were in power for 8 years, never bothered to provide such equipment for the troops they claim to care about. If the RATs always have such foresight, why did the Clintonistas waste 8 years without even producing modest amounts of body armor, not to mention up-armored Humvees and now these latest and greatest...... oh, I forget, being a RAT means never having to say you´re sorry!
mohammedans will just build IED's 4-5 times more powerful.
What do you suppose the ramps are for on the “IED” photo? The ones right above the front fenders.
Needs more wheels....
You are so correct.
We are the USA. We should be able to produce, and deploy, at least a few hundred more MRAP's by years end, if not sooner.
Why? The Marine Corps has more than 100 MRAP vehicles on the ground in Iraq.
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