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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...

HMMWV, IEDed(click to view full) Senator Biden [D-DE] took some deserved heat the other day for saying something really stupid, not exactly an uncommon occurrence for a politician. What is uncommon is an effort by a politician that actually makes a difference on the ground, and fulfills a moral calling. Which Senator Biden has also done recently... and so I'd like to cover that road less traveled, instead. What he has done is going to save a number of lives, on the front lines, in both of CENTCOM's theaters of war. It's late, the reasons why it's late have shocked...

RG-31M Proves Itself in Afghanistan April 19, 2007: Last year, Canada bought 75 RG31 (Nyala) armored vehicles for its 2,300 troops in Afghanistan. The Canadian version, the RG-31M, had special equipment installed, including jammers (to prevent roadside bombs from being detonated via a wireless device) and a remotely (from inside the vehicle) operated 12.7mm machine-gun. There were problems with the installation of the machine-gun system, including some software glitches. In addition, when the jammer was turned on, most of the RG-31s found that their alternators quickly burned out. These problems were eventually eliminated. Otherwise, the RG-31s have given good service....

Marines to trade in vulnerable Humvees By David Wood The Baltimore Sun WASHINGTON — Marines in heavily armored Humvees are being killed by powerful roadside bombs at such a rate that the Marine Corps intends to replace all its Humvees in Iraq with specialized, blast-resistant armored vehicles, according to senior Marine officers. The Army will continue to rely primarily on armored Humvees, senior Army officers said Wednesday. The decision to scrap the Marines' Humvees in Iraq, after years of trying to protect crews by adding armor plate, was made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marines forces in the...

Canadians escape suicide blastcnews.canoe.ca By Les Perreaux September 27, 2006 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - With a muffled thump and the flash of a "second sun," Canadian soldiers faced another brush with death Wednesday as a suicide bomber hit their convoy. There were no Canadian casualties but one Afghan civilian was hurt. Such attacks have happened so frequently in Kandahar that local firefighters drove past the blast's aftermath on their way to collect a modest gift of rudimentary firefighting gear at a Canadian camp. The spade shovels and tin buckets were neatly stacked earlier in the day for the hearts-and-minds gift...

NAJAF, Iraq — As U.S. troops prepare to vacate a once-key forward operating base on the fringes of this Shiite Muslim holy city, Iraqi soldiers are bracing themselves for the impending handover. Last week, soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division received a shipment of 10 new Polish-built armored cars.The hulking vehicles, which are studded with machine-gun ports and spray-painted with the Iraqi flag, are intended to aid Iraqi army soldiers in dealing with conflicts between Shiite militias who are vying for political supremacy in this area — the cultural and spiritual heart of Iraq’s Shiite-led...

June 23, 2006 Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the number one killer of US soldiers in Iraq, and the focus of an enormous effort by the US military - in 2005, the U.S. military spent US$3.3 billion to defeat IEDs and one of the key answers found in the quest was the 28,550-pound Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Cougar. The Cougar’s v-shaped hull assists deflection of a mine or improvised explosive device blast away from the vehicle’s capsule, keeping the passengers safe and the vehicle intact. The ballistic glass with gun ports allow the passengers to engage insurgents ambush attempts without...

Sgt. Rene Knox Jr. of New Orleans was driving a heavily armored Humvee on a blackened dirt road near Balad, Iraq, when the vehicle rolled down an embankment and into a canal — killing Knox, two other soldiers and a serviceman trying to rescue them. Three days later, Sgt. Timothy R. Osbey and Spc. Joseph A. Rahaim, National Guardsmen from Magnolia, Miss., drowned under nearly identical circumstances when their Humvee rolled over into a canal. Twelve days later, Sgt. Julio E. Negron and Spc. Lizbeth Robles of Fort Carson, Colo., were killed and two others were injured after their armored...

Wheeled armored vehicles have become the hot item everywhere on the planet, especially in the last five years. The new American Stryker vehicle is just part of the trend. However, the success of the Stryker in Iraq has encouraged more orders for these vehicles, which are faster on roads, and cheaper and easier to maintain. The main manufacturers are Patria (Finnish), Steyr (Austrian, but owned by General Dynamics), Mowag (Austrian [Swiss], also owned by General Dynamics) and the BTR line (an old series of Russian vehicles, currently built by two Russian firms.) There are other manufacturers, but the above firms...

Needing light armored vehicles as quickly as possible, Iraq has bought over a thousand from Turkish manufacturer Otocar. These six ton vehicles provide similar protection to that of an armored hummer. Iraq also ordered over a thousand similar DZIK 3 vehicles from Poland. These weigh 5.5 tons and are similar to the Otocar vehicles. Both the Otocar and DZIK vehicles carry up to eleven troops, and mount a machine-gun (usually 7.62mm or 12.7mm). By the end of 2006, the Iraqi police and army expect to be running all combat patrols (ones where ambush or roadside bombs might be a factor)...

The Australian Bushmaster armored truck has proved itself capable during its first combat use in Iraq. The vehicle was developed in Australia in the late 1990s, with mass production finally beginning in 2002. Originally, the plan was to order 341 vehicles, to equip three light infantry battalions. These units would thus be able to patrol vast areas of uninhabited coasts and the outback (the large arid region comprising most of the interior). There was enough space in the vehicles to store three days worth of supplies for these patrols. In 2000, two of the prototype vehicles were sent with the...

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,...

News Release 25 New Armoured Patrol Vehicles Heading to Kandahar NR–06.024 - May 31, 2006OTTAWA – The Department of National Defence is purchasing an additional 25 new armoured patrol vehicles for Operation ARCHER, the Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan. These new vehicles, a version of the RG-31 Nyala manufactured by BAE Land Systems OMC in the Republic of South Africa, are providing excellent protection for our troops while they conduct patrols, command and liaison, and reconnaissance tasks in mountainous terrain and complex urban centers of Afghanistan. This $31 million option to buy is in addition to an existing contract valued...

Back in November, 2005, DefenseReview published a press release on the Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Rapid Response Vehicle (JERRV) and Buffalo Mine Clearance Vehicle made by Force Protection, Inc. (a.k.a. Force Protection Industries, Inc.). We've been hearing good things about the performance of these armored vehicles in the Sandbox (theater of operations), and recently spoke with Force Protection VP Mike Aldrich about them. Two of the vehicle design features we on the phone discussed were V-hull and diamond-shaped crew compartment utilized by both vehicles. We're going to publish a more in-depth article on the Buffalo and Cougar armored vehicles based...

Stryker ramps up to unveil Mobile Gun System By Annette FournierMay 9, 2006 FORT BENNING, Ga. (Army News Service, May 9, 2006) – The newest version of the Stryker vehicle, designed to provide fire power to Infantry units, will be unveiled May 15 at Fort Knox's Armor Warfighting Symposium. The development of the Mobile Gun System is being managed by Fort Benning's Training and Doctrine Command System Manager-Stryker/Bradley. The system was developed to meet the infantry’s need for a highly mobile support vehicle to supply rapid, direct fire, specifically during close assaults, said Dave Rogers, a TSM-Stryker senior analyst....

Britain is buying 80 armored trucks for their troops in Afghanistan, who are facing a more hostile environment that they did in Iraq. Eighty Pinzgauer military trucks are being bought, at a cost of $788,000 each. The Pinzgauer was developed, in the early 1970s, by the Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch (which now has an assembly plant in Britain). This new cross country truck design proved very popular with the civilian market, and then with military users. Cheaper and, to their users, more versatile and reliable than trucks from the larger military vehicle manufacturers, there are now over 30,000 Pinzgauers in service...

An inside look at the Pentagon's inadequate response to the IED threat in Iraq. "Between the increase in armor and the changes in tactics, techniques and procedures that we've employed, the number of attacks . . . that have been effective has gone down, and the number of casualties per effective attack has gone down." --General Peter Pace Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff November 2005 GENERAL PETER PACE issued that statement last November in response to an inquiry about the Pentagon's efforts to combat the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq. What General Pace did not...

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — Spc. David Norris swivels like a ball-turret gunner in an old bomber as he moves the internal turret of his Armored Security Vehicle to check for prowling insurgents on a main Iraqi road. With a turret that allows gunners to fire while inside the vehicle, three layers of armor and an imposing look, the ASVs also have a distinct psychological effect on those inside and out of the vehicles, soldiers said. The ASV is part of the evolving war-scape of Iraqi roads, which has proven to be a tough battleground for Humvees. Norris, 24, has been...

Set Condition 1 has some info on the contenders: Bushmaster meets the competition in the USAirborne Combat Engineer notes The Army is looking at off-the-shelf vehicles and asks Why not buy an interim replacement for the Humvee?Joe Katzman: Hummer Deathtraps Suck: Take 2UPDATE: I knew I'd seen another good post on the Humvee problem just recently. In an update to his post, Joe K points out Washington Park Prophet's, um, The Humvee Problem.For the record, Murdoc isn't necessarily down on the Humvee. But Murdoc's down on the fact that our military seems to be reacting in slow motion to this...

Backgrounder: Armoured patrol vehicles BG-06.01 OTTAWA, Ontario — The Army is acquiring Armoured Patrol Vehicles (APV) that will provide a high level of protection for troops while they conduct patrol, command and liaison, and reconnaissance tasks in complex urban and mountainous terrain. Based on the RG-31 Mine-Protected Vehicle, from General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada (GDLS-C), the APV is a 4 x 4 wheeled vehicle with bullet resistant windows and enhanced protection against both Improvised Explosive Devices and ballistic threats. The APV is specifically designed to resist under wheel and under belly mine strikes to enhance crew survivability by providing...