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A photo set.

Engineer Paul Green wheels his company's new fully armored combat vehicle over the clay roads and muddy streambeds of the South Carolina backcountry, guns the engine and races over one hill and then the next. "This is designed to be what we thought would be a step up from the Humvee," he shouts as he shifts gears. "This vehicle was never designed to be a direct replacement for the current armored Humvee." But the prototype -- christened the MUV-R (Mine-protected Utility Vehicle/Rapid Deployable) by its manufacturer, Charleston, S.C.-based Force Protection, Inc. -- may well be.

11/29/2005 - TIKRIT, Iraq (AFPN) -- As Airmen saddle up for one of the most notorious jobs in Iraq, the mood is not dread, but drive and determination. There's confidence in every move as members of the 732nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron here at Forward Operating Base Speicher prepare to escort truck convoys on some of the roughest roads in the country. "I love being a gunner. It's a major adrenalin rush," said Airman Catherine Karl, deployed here from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England. "You're up there and always paying attention. It's bumpy, but I don't think I'd rather do...

Commanders have requested to nearly double the number of armored utility vehicles in Iraq to 8,000, in yet another shift in equipment needs to keep pace with an insurgency that continues to strike troops. Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee told of the newest requisition during a recent hourlong interview with The Washington Times. It is the commanders' job in the field to devise the tactics to defeat an enemy made up of foreign terrorists, Saddam Hussein loyalists and criminals freed by the fallen dictator. Back at the Pentagon, it has been Mr. Brownlee's job to make sure they have the...

Anniston's `Slammer' 08/04/03 TOM GORDON News staff writer CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - The people who don't want U.S. troops in Iraq seem to be thinking they can achieve their goal by attacking convoys and killing soldiers. Inside a huge hangar-like warehouse in this sprawling Army post, a team of Anniston Army Depot workers is building a vehicle that they hope will better withstand attacks and better protect the convoys. The cab of this vehicle in the making is the hull of an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. On its side is the nickname, The Alabama Slammer. When it is fitted on...

Amid a wave of violence in Iraq, U.S. military commanders there are requesting additional armored vehicles, particularly large ones that can transport a dozen or more passengers, The Army has shipped more than 10,000 armored Humvees to Iraq, but these only can fit four passengers. To move larger numbers of troops, commanders have limited options. One is a gun-truck armor kit that is installed on 5-ton vehicles, with machine guns mounted around the cargo box. The gun-truck kit was dubbed “Hunter Box” after Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who earmarked funds for the project. Researchers at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...

New 5-ton armored "gun trucks" fielded in Iraq are providing U.S. troops with effective protection against insurgents' improvised explosive devices and small-arms fire, a senior military researcher said today on Capitol Hill. Currently, "there are 31 5-ton gun trucks in Iraq, and they are saving lives," Steven J. DeTeresa, an engineer from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., told members of the House Armed Services Committee. DeTeresa said the Army used gun trucks during the Vietnam War. The Livermore lab and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he noted, have worked since December 2003 to jointly develop a...

One reason for the Iraq armor shortage: The military is too thorough.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...

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. These are some of the facts the three star General shared with the press: "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...

First it was Humvees. Now, the Rock Island Arsenal is being called upon to make armor that can protect five-ton trucks used in Iraq. Within days, production will begin to fortify passenger cabs for the M939 truck, a medium-size vehicle used for a variety of transportation missions in Iraq. Like the lighter-weight Humvees, the M939 is not armored, and with insurgents in the war-torn country increasing their attacks on Americans and Iraqis alike, the U.S. Army is trying to better protect its fleet of vehicles. As a result, the Arsenal will be adding a third shift in its fabrication and...

Soldiers from Logistics Support Area Anaconda picked up new Convoy Protection Platform M1114 Humvees at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait Nov. 12. The new vehicles will help soldiers escort critical supply convoys in a safer, more fully armored vehicle. Each Humvee came with a .50 caliber machine gun, Mark 19 grenade launcher or a M240B machine gun to go along with its fully armored chassis and shell, improved armor for the turret system, air conditioning, communications headsets, and movement tracking systems. The tracking system constantly updates the Humvees location. The soldiers from the 7th Transportation Battalion, 512th Maintenance Company and 3625th Maintenance...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq(June 16, 2004) -- Dire situations inspire ingenious solutions. This old saying rings true today for inventive Marines in Iraq who've used little more than their creativity to adapt to ever-changing enemy tactics and endure on dangerous Iraqi roads. Troops across Iraq, including several here from the 1st Force Service Support Group, use the resources they have available, and in true Marine fashion, figure out ways to make themselves faster and safer on the battlefield. While amply protected thanks to Marine Corps System Command's recent push which has already outfitted the Marine Corps' more than 3,000-strong vehicle fleet...

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — When Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Summers arrived last fall, the Army knew he’d be able save lives. The 7th Transportation Battalion asked the ship hull technician to attach makeshift steel plates to trucks and Humvees. Poorly protected vehicles had been coming under fire every time they left this central logisitics hub for points all over Iraq. Many of the vehicles did not have the extra protection of “armor-up” kits. And the Army didn’t have enough to go around. “I’m a welder by trade,” said Summers, a 33-year-old Naval reservist from Frisco, Calif. “When I got...

From the same New York Army National Guard unit that picked up escaped hostage Thomas Hamill comes word of a young soldier who killed 20 or more Iraqi insurgents when his patrol was ambushed on Easter Sunday. Spec. Timmy Haag of South Glens Falls, N.Y., made his remarkable display of courage and cool under fire as C Company, 2nd Battalion of the 108th Light Infantry was conducting a sweep of southern Samarra in open 5-ton trucks. The vehicles are so slow and high-riding that it borders on the criminal to transport soldiers on them into a known hot spot bristling...

Repeated attacks on truck convoys in Iraq have prompted the Army to revisit its requirements for future logistics vehicles. Notably, the conflict challenged the traditional notions of trucks as support vehicles that stay out of the line of fire. Many U.S. casualties in Iraq were drivers or occupants whose vehicles were struck by rocket-propelled grenades, road mines or other forms of explosive devices. The fundamental question that Army vehicle developers are trying to answer is whether the next generation of battlefield trucks will be “just trucks” hauling supplies in the rear, or whether they should be enhanced with protective armor,...

December 2, 2003: The Q-Truck in Iraq- Army soldiers in Iraq are modifying their vehicles to carry additional weapons, usually the M2 .50-caliber machine gun (first used prior to World War II), the M249 SAW (a 5.56-millimeter machine gun), and the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher (firing 40-milimeter grenade rounds). The crew-served weapons are mostly going on the Humvees, (no surprise there), but some are also being placed on the M872 Heavy Equipment Trailers. This might sound unusual, but the trucks are large, can carry a lot of ammunition, and guerillas in Iraq might not suspect they are armed at...