Army Again Raises Requirement for Humvees

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - With no sign of the Iraq (news - web sites) insurgency ending soon, the Army has again raised its goal for replacing regular Humvee utility vehicles in Iraq with armored Humvees, the Army's top civilian official said Friday.


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A Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites), meanwhile, told reporters Friday after visiting U.S. troops in Iraq that he expects the insurgency to continue for some time.

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Brownlee said that at the current production rate of 450 a month he believed the Army could meet the goal of having 8,000 armored Humvees in Iraq by March 2005. He did not say how many already are there, but he said the goal of 4,000 was met in September.


In May 2003, after the fall of Baghdad but before it was clear to U.S. officials that an insurgency was developing, the Army had 235 armored Humvees in the country and they were being produced at a rate of 15 per month, Brownlee said. By September the requirement was raised to 1,000.



more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=3&u=/ap/20041113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_military

[The Wielding Truth]

1. Who is responsible for sending in troops unprotected?

[maddezmom]

2. *, rummy, congress...take your pick

[mulethree]

5. I pick * the Commander in Chief

I blame the neocons and Cheney who created the premise that we'd be greeted as liberators and not have to deal with urban warfare and overrode and booted the generals who said we should have 3x as many troops. OK, blame also the top army brass who didn't have the balls to take that stand.

If the weapons depots were secured and the roads patrolled then you wouldn't have the artillery shells to make IUD's or the opportunities to set so many up.

The mumvee replaced the jeep, never seen an armored jeep. Is there some other light armored transport that works in urban areas that got cancelled or retired?

[livinbella]

3. Do armored Humvees stop RPGs?

[mulethree]

4. yes and no depends what warhead is on it.

RPG's can have various warheads. An anti-tank warhead can bust through a lot more armor than a humvee could carry.