thedrifter
06-15-07, 05:27 AM
Posted on Thu, Jun. 14, 2007
Marines’ vehicle delay at issue
Urgent requests for blast-resistant machines got a slow response, records indicate.
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON | In February 2005, Marines in Iraq made a “priority 1 urgent” request for 1,169 military vehicles with V-shaped undersides that save lives by deflecting blasts from roadside bombs.
But instead of those Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, the Marines back home sent armored Humvees, which offer far less protection. It wasn’t until May 2006 that the Marines ordered the MRAPs, and then only 185 of them.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is now asking the Marines to investigate and explain what happened. Today, MRAPs are a priority with Gates. Congress is spending $8.4 billion to meet the military’s request for 7,774 MRAPs. And the Army is checking to see whether it needs thousands more to replace Humvees.
Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat and longtime critic of the war, wrote Gates in May asking him to determine by today how many more MRAPs were needed and to set a production plan to get them into Iraq as fast as possible. Biden has also asked President Bush to declare the drive to build MRAPs a national priority.
Roadside bombs cause 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq, and MRAPs reduce the casualties by two-thirds. The vehicles’ V-shaped bottom deflects the force of a blast from below. An MRAP is three times heavier than a Humvee.
MRAPs, however, are not designed to withstand another weapon — explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs — that blast from the side. To fend off these more deadly weapons, the U.S. military has been working to develop another vehicle, called the Bull. Biden asked Gates to look at that program as well.
“We must make sure that this is not another MRAP story that falls through the cracks,” he wrote.
Biden is pushing Gates to get as many MRAPs and Bulls into Iraq as American forces need.
The Bull is new, but the MRAP isn’t. Other countries, including South Africa, have been using it for years.
Since March, Biden has gone to the Senate floor many times to talk about how urgently MRAPs are needed in Iraq. In March, after his staff heard Army officials complain at a hearing about a lack of funds, Biden proposed an amendment to the war-spending bill that sped up $1.5 billion so that 2,500 MRAPs could be built six months ahead of schedule. It passed the Senate 98-0.
Biden said he was shocked when InsideDefense.com broke the story of the Marines’ 2005 request.
At a May news conference, he asked how it was possible that the military had failed to act then. “How many people have perished in the meantime?” he said.
The Marines said in a written statement that at the time of the 2005 request, the Defense Department was using a new version of the Humvee, one equipped with armor.
But the 2005 request from Marines in Iraq specifically asked for the V-shaped MRAP. Attacks from roadside bombs, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades were increasing, and Marines had to move quickly and without large security contingents in hostile areas, it said.
“MRAP vehicles will protect Marines, reduce casualties, increase mobility and enhance mission success,” the request concluded.
Ellie
Marines’ vehicle delay at issue
Urgent requests for blast-resistant machines got a slow response, records indicate.
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON | In February 2005, Marines in Iraq made a “priority 1 urgent” request for 1,169 military vehicles with V-shaped undersides that save lives by deflecting blasts from roadside bombs.
But instead of those Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, the Marines back home sent armored Humvees, which offer far less protection. It wasn’t until May 2006 that the Marines ordered the MRAPs, and then only 185 of them.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is now asking the Marines to investigate and explain what happened. Today, MRAPs are a priority with Gates. Congress is spending $8.4 billion to meet the military’s request for 7,774 MRAPs. And the Army is checking to see whether it needs thousands more to replace Humvees.
Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat and longtime critic of the war, wrote Gates in May asking him to determine by today how many more MRAPs were needed and to set a production plan to get them into Iraq as fast as possible. Biden has also asked President Bush to declare the drive to build MRAPs a national priority.
Roadside bombs cause 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq, and MRAPs reduce the casualties by two-thirds. The vehicles’ V-shaped bottom deflects the force of a blast from below. An MRAP is three times heavier than a Humvee.
MRAPs, however, are not designed to withstand another weapon — explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs — that blast from the side. To fend off these more deadly weapons, the U.S. military has been working to develop another vehicle, called the Bull. Biden asked Gates to look at that program as well.
“We must make sure that this is not another MRAP story that falls through the cracks,” he wrote.
Biden is pushing Gates to get as many MRAPs and Bulls into Iraq as American forces need.
The Bull is new, but the MRAP isn’t. Other countries, including South Africa, have been using it for years.
Since March, Biden has gone to the Senate floor many times to talk about how urgently MRAPs are needed in Iraq. In March, after his staff heard Army officials complain at a hearing about a lack of funds, Biden proposed an amendment to the war-spending bill that sped up $1.5 billion so that 2,500 MRAPs could be built six months ahead of schedule. It passed the Senate 98-0.
Biden said he was shocked when InsideDefense.com broke the story of the Marines’ 2005 request.
At a May news conference, he asked how it was possible that the military had failed to act then. “How many people have perished in the meantime?” he said.
The Marines said in a written statement that at the time of the 2005 request, the Defense Department was using a new version of the Humvee, one equipped with armor.
But the 2005 request from Marines in Iraq specifically asked for the V-shaped MRAP. Attacks from roadside bombs, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades were increasing, and Marines had to move quickly and without large security contingents in hostile areas, it said.
“MRAP vehicles will protect Marines, reduce casualties, increase mobility and enhance mission success,” the request concluded.
Ellie