News & Politics - Military short of armored vehicles in Iraq

Lexis · 01-23-2007, 12:39 PM

Quote:

After nearly four years of war in Iraq, the Pentagon's effort to protect its troops against roadside bombs is in disarray, with soldiers and Marines having to swap access to scarce armored vehicles and the military unsure whether it has the money or industrial capacity to produce the safe vehicles it says the troops need.

On Jan. 10, the Baltimore Sun reported that most of the 21,500 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq as reinforcements will not have access to specialized blast-resistant armored vehicles because they are in such short supply.

But the problem runs deeper than that. In congressional testimony and interviews last week, senior Army and Marine Corps officers acknowledged that they are struggling just to meet the needs of service members already in Iraq.

Even if the Pentagon can find millions of dollars not currently budgeted, and even if it can find factories to produce the armored vehicles, most U.S. troops in Iraq will not have access to the best equipment available, as President Bush has often promised.

The Army acknowledged last week, for example, that it is still 22 percent short of the armored Humvees it needs in Iraq despite heated criticism in 2004 and 2005 over the lack of armored vehicles.

Army officials said it will be another eight months before that gap can be filled.

But with roadside bombs and other explosive devices accounting for 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq, senior officers acknowledged that even heavily armored Humvees don't provide enough protection.

Accordingly, the Army is shipping 71,000 sets of fire-resistant uniforms to Iraq so that soldiers will have a better chance of surviving the fires that often consume Humvees that hit roadside bombs.

"This is inexcusable," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a longtime critic of the military's armor program.

To augment its fleet of armored Humvees, the military is intent on buying thousands of new armored vehicles whose V-shaped hulls deflect blasts from beneath upwards and outwards, unlike the flat-bottomed Humvees that absorb the blasts.

ContraCostaTimes.com | 01/22/2007 | Military short of armored vehicles in Iraq

What a scandal. Poor soldiers sent to fight this increasingly bloody war without the proper equipment.

migamoo · 01-23-2007, 12:49 PM

This really doesn't surprise me. The government has no problem sending troops to Iraq but so what if they don't have the proper equipment. They haven't had it since the start of the war. Instead of sending more over maybe we should just invest in the proper equipment for the men and women already over there?

elisheva · 01-23-2007, 03:49 PM

There are a lot of problems of soldiers being badly equipped

Canadian soldiers have dealt with out-of-date equipment for years (including second-hand equipment that falls apart). I think part of the problem comes from improper budgeting - you can't spend on recruiting and not spend at the same time on solid equipment; and in the Canadian case, you can't expect your army to be happy sunshiney peacekeepers without giving them the budget for it. And the ones who end up hurt because of it are ordinary soldiers

migamoo · 01-23-2007, 03:52 PM

Right, you expect these people to protect you and your country, but you won't even give them the proper equipment to do it? Something there is wrong and people need to do something about it.

ceilirose · 01-23-2007, 04:06 PM

I think that part of the problem or another level of the problem is that the military didn't anticipate being in Iraq for this long. The equipment is taking a beating from being in the desert and it's getting more and more difficult to make repairs.

Also if you know people over there then you know it's not unusual to be sending them batteries for the night vision goggles and other basic supplies that you would think is being provided for them. It's just been a bad plan all around.

Lexis · 01-24-2007, 05:21 AM

Its awful. The Brits had problems with boots melting in the heat, guns getting clogged with dust, not enough body armour...ugh. It makes your heart hurt to think of it.


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