blueturk
06-26-2005, 02:05 PM
State Department officials and members of Congress who visit Iraq ride around in far better equipment than our soldiers do. And Donald Rumsfeld decided to borrow a vehicle from Halliburton (imagine that) for a trip last year. Meanwhile our troops are forced to use vehicles that were never even intended for combat. A hell of a way to run a war.
Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2005
Effort to get troops safer vehicles stalls
Procurement system can't keep up with changes in technology
MICHAEL MOSS
New York Times
When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq last year to tour the Abu Ghraib prison camp, U.S. military officials did not rely on a government-issued Humvee to transport him safely on the ground. They turned to Halliburton, which lent them a rolling fortress of steel called the Rhino Runner.
State Department officials traveling in Iraq use armored vehicles that are built with V-shaped hulls to better deflect bullets and bombs. Members of Congress favor another model, called the M1117, which can endure 12-pound explosives and .50-caliber armor-piercing rounds.
Unlike the Humvee, the Pentagon's vehicle of choice for U.S. troops, the others were designed specifically to withstand bigger attacks.
Yet more than two years into the war, efforts by U.S. military units to obtain large numbers of these stronger vehicles for soldiers have faltered -- even as the Pentagon's program to armor Humvees continues to be plagued by delays.
Many of the problems stem from a 40-year-old procurement system that cannot acquire new equipment quickly enough to adapt to changing demands.
The M1117, manufactured by Textron, lost its Pentagon money just before the invasion, and the manufacturer is now scrambling to fill rush orders from the military.
Force Protection, the South Carolina-based company making one of the V-shaped vehicles, the Cougar, said it had to lay off skilled welders last year as it waited for the contract to be completed. Even then it was paid only enough to fill half the order.
Labock Technologies, which makes the Rhino Runner, could not get through the Army's testing regime because the company declined to have one of its $250,000 vehicles blown up. The company said it provided the Army with testing data that demonstrate the Rhino's viability and is using Rumsfeld's visit in its contract pitches to the Pentagon.
The Army's vehicle-program manager urged the Pentagon in 1996 to move beyond the Humvee, saying it was built for the Cold War. Its flat-bottomed chassis is 25 years old and was never intended for combat, and the added armor protects only the front end from the heftier insurgent bombs.
As the procurement system stumbled and the Defense Department resisted allocating money for more expensive vehicles, the military ended up largely dependent on the Humvee -- the majority of which did not yet have any armor.
The Pentagon has said that no vehicle leaves camp without armor. But about half of the Army's 20,000 Humvees have improvised shielding that typically leaves the underside unprotected, while only one in six Humvees used by the Marines is armored at the highest level of protection.
The Pentagon has created a task force charged with revamping its fleet of light vehicles. Some say these efforts will suffer if the Pentagon also does not overhaul its underlying procurement system.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/11988656.htm
Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2005
Effort to get troops safer vehicles stalls
Procurement system can't keep up with changes in technology
MICHAEL MOSS
New York Times
When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq last year to tour the Abu Ghraib prison camp, U.S. military officials did not rely on a government-issued Humvee to transport him safely on the ground. They turned to Halliburton, which lent them a rolling fortress of steel called the Rhino Runner.
State Department officials traveling in Iraq use armored vehicles that are built with V-shaped hulls to better deflect bullets and bombs. Members of Congress favor another model, called the M1117, which can endure 12-pound explosives and .50-caliber armor-piercing rounds.
Unlike the Humvee, the Pentagon's vehicle of choice for U.S. troops, the others were designed specifically to withstand bigger attacks.
Yet more than two years into the war, efforts by U.S. military units to obtain large numbers of these stronger vehicles for soldiers have faltered -- even as the Pentagon's program to armor Humvees continues to be plagued by delays.
Many of the problems stem from a 40-year-old procurement system that cannot acquire new equipment quickly enough to adapt to changing demands.
The M1117, manufactured by Textron, lost its Pentagon money just before the invasion, and the manufacturer is now scrambling to fill rush orders from the military.
Force Protection, the South Carolina-based company making one of the V-shaped vehicles, the Cougar, said it had to lay off skilled welders last year as it waited for the contract to be completed. Even then it was paid only enough to fill half the order.
Labock Technologies, which makes the Rhino Runner, could not get through the Army's testing regime because the company declined to have one of its $250,000 vehicles blown up. The company said it provided the Army with testing data that demonstrate the Rhino's viability and is using Rumsfeld's visit in its contract pitches to the Pentagon.
The Army's vehicle-program manager urged the Pentagon in 1996 to move beyond the Humvee, saying it was built for the Cold War. Its flat-bottomed chassis is 25 years old and was never intended for combat, and the added armor protects only the front end from the heftier insurgent bombs.
As the procurement system stumbled and the Defense Department resisted allocating money for more expensive vehicles, the military ended up largely dependent on the Humvee -- the majority of which did not yet have any armor.
The Pentagon has said that no vehicle leaves camp without armor. But about half of the Army's 20,000 Humvees have improvised shielding that typically leaves the underside unprotected, while only one in six Humvees used by the Marines is armored at the highest level of protection.
The Pentagon has created a task force charged with revamping its fleet of light vehicles. Some say these efforts will suffer if the Pentagon also does not overhaul its underlying procurement system.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/11988656.htm