Marines to Buy Tougher Armored Vehicles for Iraq (available in 2009)

[sabra]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/IraqCoverage/story?id=2878399&page=1

Marines to Buy Tougher Armored Vehicles for Iraq
The Mine-Resistant Vehicles Will Not Be Available for Another Two Years

Feb. 15, 2007 — Not satisfied with the quality of armor available for the troops in Iraq, the Marine Corps has decided to ask for an entirely new kind of vehicle known as the MRAP, which the corps hopes will provide more protection to Marines.

The Marines hope to replace all of its 3,700 Humvees in Iraq, but it will take until 2009 and will cost $3.7 billion, since each vehicle costs $900,000. Until then, the Marines will have to make do with the more vulnerable armored Humvees available to them now.

The new hull-armored MRAPs, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, have V-shaped floors that deflect the force of the blast away from the vehicles. Humvees are more vulnerable because they have flat floors that absorb the blast from roadside bombs. MRAPs are said to provide survival rates four to five times safer than armored Humvees.

Roadside bombs take a heavy toll on U.S. forces in Iraq. More than 700 Marines have been killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003, nearly two-thirds of them in Humvee attacks, the Pentagon says.

[Debau2005]

1. 2009?

Well that's helpful! :sarcasm:

[atreides1]

3. It won't matter

By the time these vehicles are fielded, they'll be obsolete and any potential enemy will have already found a way to counter the protective features.

[jayfish]

4. What's Worse Is ...

the idea that the Marines will even be there in 2009.

Jay

[indepat]

6. Yes, it is comforting to know the lack of an exit strategy was because not exiting seems to have

been the strategy and agenda from the git-go. If so, that would mean our suffering tens of thousands of casualties (includes the wounded) while inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties on the native population and destroying their infrastructure at a cost to the treasury of more than one trillion dollars, seemingly all so the giant oil companies could reap most of the profits from Iraq's oil. Like it or not, there it is: this is the nation and people we have become and it ain't pretty. :(

[LonelyLRLiberal]

7. Agreed - "exit" has never been part of the Bush plan.

Just look at the embassy under construction in Baghdad - bigger than Vatican City. Iraq is supposed to be our foothold in the region - American imperialism and control of oil. I think only Bush may believe his rhetoric about "bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East." What a crock!

[soothsayer]

2. It'll never happen, because in real life they sink in the sand. Just

too heavy.

[piedmont]

10. Are you speaking from some knowledge of MRAPs, or just guessing?

By the way, Iraq is not all sand.

[Rainscents]

5. I guess, we are not leaving before 2009.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. Why not pick up a leftover demo 2008, say for around $850,000

Jeez.............

[billyoc]

9. Just in time for Surge XXVIII n/t

[IndianaGreen]

11. This also assumes that the insurgents won't adapt

More money wasted, and we may well be in Surge XXVIII if Congress and a new Democratic Administration do not bite the bullet and end this war.