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Spc. Danell Williams, of Leamington, N.C., welds a steel plate to the inside bed of an Iraqi Security Force pickup truck at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Aug. 18. Photo by Pvt. Jared N. Gehmann, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. BAGHDAD — As security improves here, U.S. forces are patrolling the streets much less.  But behind the scenes, U.S. Paratroopers are helping their Iraqi partners in other ways. While tactical improvements are evident, some Iraqi Security Force (ISF) units still lack sufficient protection needed during mounted movements throughout the capital city. In an effort to support the combat strength of the ISF,...

The US Marine Corps has placed two follow-on delivery orders worth a total of $715m with BAE Systems for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. Under the new contracts, BAE Systems will build and deliver 1,024 Caiman-based Category I vehicles and 447 RG33 Category I and II vehicles (bringing the total to 3,150 Category 1 and 1,927 Category II vehicles respectively). BAE Systems anticipates that the Caiman award, worth $481.8m, will include spares and increased contractor logistic support. The RG33 order, worth $234m, involves the production of three special forces command vehicles, 51 ambulance variants and 393 RG33 Category II...

Soldier Hit by Anti-Tank Mine Praises Up-Armor Up-armored humvee saves the lives of soldiers hit by anti-tank mine. U.S. Army Pfc. Durwood Blackmon 25th Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs TIKRIT, IRAQ, Sept. 18, 2006 -- U.S. soldiers are issued cumbersome protective gear that they have to lug, carry and drag everywhere they go. With heavy steel doors and blast shields, vehicles in the Army are no exception either. For one soldier of the 25th Infantry Division, Combat Aviation Brigade, however, both of these security defenses helped to save his life and the life of his fellow comrades when their...

TIKRIT, Iraq - Soldiers exposed to Iraq's increasingly lethal roadside bombs, which can rip through armored Humvees, are drawing on wartime experience and stateside expertise to protect their vehicles with stronger armor and thermal detection cameras. The upgrades are being done by individual soldiers and units as the Pentagon decides how Humvees should be changed, and follow public criticism of the Bush administration for not armoring all Humvees ahead of the war. Nearly three years after rolling into Iraq in trucks covered in many instances only by canvas roofs, the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade is adding extra layers of...

UPDATE: On Nov. 10 we reported in NavySEALs.com on the development of a new armored vehicle, "The Rock," which is being manufactured by Granite Global Services in Kuwait for service in Iraq. On November 25, during an operation in the Baghdad area, one of Granite Global's armored "Rocks" was hit with an improvised explosive device (IED). The vehicle sustained no major damage, and - best of all - no injuries were suffered by passengers or crew. Kuwait-based Navy SEAL Reservist is building armored vehicles for Iraqi combat ON MARCH 31, 2004, terrorists and a frenzied mob in the city of...

Insurgents will have a tougher time targeting U.S. troops riding in Humvees and other vehicles in Iraq come Feb. 15. That's when, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told CNN interviewer Larry King Feb. 3, "there will not be a vehicle moving around in Iraq anywhere outside of a protected compound that does not have the appropriate armor." Speaking to King from the Pentagon via a video hookup, Rumsfeld noted that specialists had been flown into Iraq in recent weeks to attach shipped-in supplemental armor to various U.S. military vehicles.

The Pentagon has assured us that it will be spending $4 billion (that's right, billion) to "armor up" virtually all military vehicles in Iraq. It won't be enough. There will never be enough armor to "protect" all our troops. The armor "kits" being placed on, Humvees and trucks will compromise their performance and mobility (2000 pounds or more added weight), complicate their maintenance, shorten their service life and provide only relative protection.

- In his recent unequivocal vote of confidence for Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush said, among other supportive comments, that Secretary Rumsfeld sometimes presents a rough and gruff demeanor. Sure he does….shouldn‘t he? What demeanor should a Secretary of Defense have, that of a girlie-man? He won two wars for cripes sake and is already on his way to seeing through the exceedingly difficult mission of assuring that elections take place in Iraq at the end of January. Most of the criticism comes from the political left, all of those military experts, who have the answers to everything. Not a word...

About Those Un-Armored Humvees This press conference by Major General Stephen Speakes and several other officers, which took place on Wednesday, is worth reading in its entirety. The purpose of the press conference was to address the issue of "un-armored" vehicles that was raised by a National Guardsman in a question directed to Donald Rumsfeld a week or so ago. The overall impression I get is that the Army is responding appropriately to the risks posed by improvised explosive devices, and there is basically no story here. The facts regarding the Guardsman's own unit also appear to be quite different...

More than three years after terrorists crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, most skyscrapers still the lack armor plating that could help reduce casualties in a future attack, according to a report released by Congress. "The Bush administration has devoted almost zero resources to up-armoring our nation's tallest buildings," said an unnamed official who had seen parts of the report. "We have anecdotal evidence of stock brokers dragging dumpsters into their offices and actually working inside the dumpster to get that extra layer of protection." The report's release comes just days after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced a...

U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andy Miller Soldiers of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment conduct pre-combat checks on their new Humvees at Camp Striker near Baghdad International Airport on Thursday. The 1st Cavalry Division has provided the 82nd Airborne Division armored Humvees for operations in Iraq, division officials at Fort Bragg said Friday. ''We requested additional armored vehicles to ensure our paratroopers had the best equipment,'' said Maj. Amy Hannah, a division spokeswoman at Fort Bragg. The 82nd received more than 60 M-1114 "up-armored" vehicles in Iraq, Hannah said. Many soldiers in Iraq say the greatest threat they face...

IN HARM'S WAY - Even though roadside explosive devices account for half of all the war's U.S. casualties, soldiers are still getting killed and wounded by them because the Pentagon hasn't provided enough fully-armored vehicles to protect them. Steve Kroft reports.

Thursday, January 29, 2004 More new Humvees, armoring kits are making their way to Iraq By Lisa Burgess, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Thursday, January 29, 2004 ARLINGTON, Va. — With funding secured and contracting processes completed, the Army is starting to move ever-larger quantities of both armoring kits and newly built armored Humvees into Iraq, Army officials said.There are now more than 2,000 up-armored Humvees “in theater” in Southwest Asia, which includes Afghanistan and Iraq, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony on Wednesday.Maj. Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon,...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- Staff Sgt. Michael Klinkert (right) and Airman 1st Class Christopher Coble were driving this heavily armored Humvee at about 8 p.m. Jan. 5 when they entered an unmarked minefield here. Explosions rocked the vehicle and they were stranded for about two hours until a mine-clearing vehicle was sent in. Sergeant Klinkert and Airman Coble are security forces specialists assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group here. Both are deployed from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Davidson) BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Two security forces airmen...