Pentagon balked at pleas from officers in field for safer vehicles

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

<snip>

Years before the war began, Pentagon officials knew of the effectiveness of another type of vehicle that better shielded troops from bombs like those that have killed Kincaid and 1,500 other soldiers and Marines. But military officials repeatedly balked at appeals — from commanders on the battlefield and from the Pentagon's own staff — to provide the life-saving Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, or MRAP, for patrols and combat missions, USA TODAY found.

...

As early as December 2003, when the Marines requested their first 27 MRAPs for explosive disposal teams, Pentagon analysts sent detailed information about the superiority of the vehicles to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, e-mails obtained by USA TODAY show. Later pleas came from Iraq, where commanders saw that the approach the Joint Chiefs embraced— adding armor to the sides of Humvees, the standard vehicles in the war zone — did little to protect against blasts beneath the vehicles.

Despite the efforts, the general who chaired the Joint Chiefs until Oct. 1, 2005, says buying MRAPs "was not on the radar screen when I was chairman." Air Force general Richard Myers, now retired, says top military officials dealt with a number of vehicle issues, including armoring Humvees. The MRAP, however, was "not one of them." Something related to MRAPs "might have crossed my desk," Myers says, "but I don't recall it."

...

Even as the Pentagon balked at buying MRAPs for U.S. troops, USA TODAY found that the military pushed to buy them for a different fighting force: the Iraqi army.

On Dec. 22, 2004 — two weeks after President Bush told families of servicemembers that "we're doing everything we possibly can to protect your loved ones" — a U.S. Army general solicited ideas for an armored vehicle for the Iraqis. The Army had an "extreme interest" in getting troops better armor, then-brigadier general Roger Nadeau told a subordinate looking at foreign technology, in an e-mail obtained by USA TODAY.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-07-15-ied-cover_N.htm

[DeSwiss]

1. I wonder how many MRAPs....

.... the $282 million "stolen" from the Dar Es Salaam bank would have bought?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html

K&R!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. maybe 10.

after all the add-ons, profit taking and delivery charges.
but that includes a full tank of diesel and an extra set of wipers.

[DeSwiss]

5. Good Point....

But after you mentioned that, I checked at Wiki. And apparently for the paltrey sum of $122.8 million that buys you a total of 215 vehicles.

On Feb 14, 2007 the Marine Corps Systems Command placed a $67.4 million delivery order for 65 Category I Cougar H, and 60 Category II Cougar HE vehicles, as well as a $55.4 million delivery order 15 Category I BAE RG-33 vehicles, and 75 Category II BAE RG-33L vehicles, built in York, PA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP_(armored_vehicle)

The question is, if that order was placed in February, where are the vehicles? And more to the point, if we spent what we pay in one day in Iraq ($12 billion), we could have one for each soldier that we have deployed there. Better, why don't we just get them for everyone? Including all the Iraqis. That way, IED's would soon become obsolete....

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. hey, what do you think our mercenaries are driving, anyway?

I mean really. Support the troops means we get to fund, build, train, a shadow army under no control of government as we know it. It means we supply them with better equipment, armor vehicles and weapons than we give to our troops. And it remains hidden in open sight, with a gullible, uninterested, and embedded news profession that is more concerned about missing wives, girlfriends and bimbettes. (assuming they are white and blond)

[tanyev]

2. Support the troops!

Wave little flags and put magnetic stickers on your car! Pray that the flags and stickers have magical protective properties, because the people that are supposed to be taking care of our troops aren't doing squat.

[Demit]

4. That is really obscene. Military officials stiffing their own soldiers on equipment

that they "pushed to buy" for the Iraqi army. What contempt. What contempt!

[Javaman]

7. didn't rumspuke say something about going to war with the..

old equipment you have so you can buy more from the military industrial complex later with inflated prices in order to boost his stock profile?

Something like that right?