[Vision2020] Does Bush Really Support The Troops?

[Tom Hansen]

Kai Eiselein stated:

"What the writer doesn't mention is how heavy and difficult is to get MRAPs
into place, along with the inabilty and/or difficulty in manuevering them
through crowded streets.

While they are good at withstanding blasts, their limitations render the
current models nearly useless in urban warfare. 

Spin, baby, spin. To hell with the facts, typical of the NY Slimes."

How much spin do you feel the Army times puts on their articles, Kai?

>From the May 12, 2007 edition of the Army Times -

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Army to request 17,000 MRAPs

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 12, 2007 8:18:27 EDT
   
Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren confirmed today that the Army is set to
substantially increase the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
vehicles it had planned to buy, replacing within two years the 17,700
Humvees now in Iraq.

"The earlier plan was 2,500, and that's not enough. I can't tell you the
exact number at this point, but it's going to grow considerably," Geren
said, indicating that the Army is working to adjust its budget and to
determine industry's capacity to produce more MRAPs.

The plan to buy more MRAPs, he said, will not mean an end to the
development, production and fielding of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle,
which the Army was considering as a replacement for the Humvee, using the
MRAP as an interim replacement.

Now, according to a Pentagon source, the plan has changed and more than
9,000 MRAPs will be procured for fiscal year 2008 and 8,700 more for fiscal
2009.

"By September 2009, every single Humvee in theater will be replaced with the
MRAP," said the source, who spoke to Army Times on condition of anonymity.

The Marine Corps already has more than 100 MRAPs on the ground in Iraq, and
the Army will field the first of its 2,500 MRAPs in Iraq beginning in
August, 700 of which are already in hand, Geren said.

The MRAP program has moved quickly and is a joint procurement effort between
the Army and Marine Corps.

There are eight manufacturers who could deliver variations of the vehicle,
which has a v-shaped hull to disperse blasts that occur under the roadways
and are expected to be more resistant to side-blasts.

"This is the next evolution of vehicles that is responding to the underbelly
attacks that sometimes take place. A natural progression of lighter, more
effective, more resistant armor both personal and vehicle," Gen. Peter Pace,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

The request for the newer vehicles was made by commanding general of
Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the source said. 

"Odierno has asked to replace every Humvee in Iraq with the MRAP," the
source said.

A spokeswoman for Odierno in Iraq said she was unaware of the commander's
request.

The Humvee has been on the ground in Iraq since the beginning of operations
in 2003 and has undergone several armor upgrades. But the extra armor
weighed down the vehicle beyond its capabilities and has failed to
effectively shield soldiers from the force of roadside bombs.

In a May 2 internal letter to top Pentagon officials, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates called upon service leaders to make acquisition of the MRAP
their "highest priority."

"The MRAP should be considered the highest priority Department of Defense
acquisition program," the letter said, calling for the immediate application
of "any and all options to accelerate the production and fielding of this
capability."

"I would like to know what funding, material, program, legal or other limits
currently constrains the program and options available to overcome them,"
Gates wrote.

Members of Congress have grilled Army leaders on why more MRAPs were not
being ordered sooner. In the House of Representatives air-land
subcommittee's 2008 budget markup, $4.1 billion was allocated for MRAPs.

Gates' letter also ponders why the Army and Marine Corps seem to have
different plans for the MRAP.

"I am also concerned with the wide variance in approach on the use of this
capability between the Marine Corps and the Army," Gates wrote.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho