Military Dragged Feet on Bomb-Proof Vehicles

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Wired Blog Network

The Marine Corps waited over a year before acting on an "priority 1 urgent" request to send blast-resistant vehicles to Iraq, DANGER ROOM has learned.

According to a Marine Corps document provided to DANGER ROOM, the request for over 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles came in February, 2005. A formal call to fulfill that order did not emerge until November, 2006. "There is an immediate need for an MRAP vehicle capability to increase survivability and mobility of Marines operating in a hazardous fire area against known threats," the 2005 "universal need statement" notes.

<snip>

Despite the stark language, however, that request was not acted upon. Instead, the Marine Corps waited until November, 2006 to issue a formal request for proposals to buy approximately 1,200 MRAPs.

Bill Johnson-Miles, a Marine Corps spokesman, tells DANGER ROOM that the delay was perfectly justified. "We can't just take the request from them, and put it out on the street," he says.

A lack of manufacturing capability kept the Marines from issuing that request, Johnson-Miller adds. "There just wasn't anybody that could meet those requirements," he says. "The industrial base wasn't there."




Read more: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/military_dragge.html

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Yeah the f'in industrial base was outsourced!

Good response from Paul Rieckhoff. "This is what happens when industry isn't put on a war footing," he adds. "It's like the military families are at war, and everyone else is out shopping."

[soothsayer]

1. plus they're probably so heavy that they'll sink in the sand. i think

that has been one issue.

[Kagemusha]

3. Well good thing they're being bought for urban areas then.

There are huge problems with this procurement situation but I wouldn't consider sinking in sand to be one of them. The purchase is not long-term so they'll use and lose the vehicles and they won't be part of the Corps' war plans. Just their current survival plans.

Of course maybe if they'd been more serious about procurement a year earlier they might not be in such hard straits (as I mention in my reply to the original poster below)...

[Kagemusha]

2. Isn't the current story that the Corps is getting this from 30 different sources?

In a mad dash that's horribly expensive, like 1 million per vehicle? (Used to be main battle tanks were a cool 4 million each only.)

[ohio2007]

4. Are any of them "made in the USA" manufacturers ?

any way, they only need to modify bombs and the bomb proof vehicle is outdated after a few field tests.

[Kagemusha]

5. I thought all of them were. (Re: Made in USA)

The I in IED ('improvised') means that bomb quality is highly variable in many cases so, doubtless this vehicle will save some lives. But as the old guy in The Karate Kid liked to say, the best block is not to be there.

[ohio2007]

6. I saw an article about a South African vehicle

that was 'da bomb' ( sorry ) in safety.
But with those molten copper shaped charges, all the bomb makers have to do is increase the recipe in making them an M1A1 tank is toast.

It all reminds me of the old Mel Gibson "Mad Max/Road Warrior/Thunder Dome" movies made in the outback of Oz.
Necessity is the mother of invention