In February of 2005 the marines in Iraq made a “priority 1 Urgent” request for 1.269 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPS) with “V” shaped undersides that deflects blasts from roadside bombs.
Roadside bombs cause 70% of American casualties in Iraq and these MRAPS can reduce those casualties by two-thirds.
Instead of the MRAPS asked for, the marines sent them armored Humvees. The humvees have less protection than the MRAPS and were definitely not what was requested or needed.
The Marines finally got around to sending the MRAPS to Iraq in May of 2006. Even then they sent only 185 of them.
This has become a top priority with Defense Secretary Robert Gates who wants to know what happened and started an investigation into the matter.
The new request is for 7,774 (how do they come up with these weird numbers?) MRAPS and Congress is spending $8.4 billion to fill this order.
Although these MRAPS are protected from blasts from beneath the vehicle, it is not protected on the side against explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) which have been used against U.S. forces since 2005.
MRAPS are not new. They have been used by other countries for years. Why not this country?
Senator Joe Biden Democrat from Delaware asked at a May news conference “How many people have perished in the meantime?”
The California Curmudgeon
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