Corps refused 2005 plea for MRAP vehicle

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

More than two years before the Marine commandant declared getting new armored vehicles his top priority, the Corps did not fulfill an urgent request to buy 1,200 of the vehicles for troops in Anbar province, according to Marine officials and documents.
Commanders in Anbar, the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, wanted the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to protect troops attacked by insurgents using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to a Feb. 17, 2005, request filed by then-brigadier general Dennis Hejlik.

The Marines, the request said, "cannot continue to lose … serious and grave casualties to IED … at current rates when a commercial off the shelf capability exists to mitigate" them. Hejlik and a Marine Corps spokesman, Brig. Gen. Robert Milstead, confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which was first reported Tuesday on the Wired magazine website.

Since 2005, Pentagon leaders have shifted course on the MRAP. The Marines have requested 3,700 of the vehicles, and the Army is now seeking up to 17,700. The overall cost of buying the MRAPs could reach $25 billion, Pentagon records show.

On Wednesday, Hejlik and other officials said the Marines determined in 2005 they could protect troops better with armored Humvees than MRAPs.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-23-marines-mrap_N.htm

[jollyreaper2112]

1. yeah, but you don't understand

The commercial off the shelf solution isn't buttering the right peoples' bread. Billionaire's gotta eat! Go die for the throne, prole.

:(

[FogerRox]

2. Armored vehicles like the

..........M-117.... .................. ..... Stryker

are being produced at the rate of about 30 to 40 a month, these 2 vehicles can do 70mph, are impervious to small arms fire, can handle road side bombs and RPG's. IMHO we need 12,000 of them to replace the Humvees. IIRC we have about 2,000 of them.

[NickB79]

4. Strykers are being defeated regularly by IED's now

http://www.strykernews.com/archives/2007/05/13/stryker_losses.html

"Since the Strykers went into action in violent Diyala province north of Baghdad two months ago, losses of the vehicles have been rising steadily, U.S. officials said.

A single infantry company in Diyala lost five Strykers this month in less than a week, according to soldiers familiar with the losses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release the information. The overall number of Strykers lost recently is classified."

The Iraqis are very quick to adapt to new challenges, it seems.

[FogerRox]

5. I'll bet you a dollar that more troops walked away

than would have walked away from the same IED attack on a HumVee. IMHO thats a gimme put.

[FogerRox]

3. Kickin