Humvee's Not Breaking News

With all due respect to the writer, a breaking news story appearing on a news service at which I also post sports an image of a plywood covered Humvee and raises the topic of our soldiers in Iraq fighting with insufficient armour for their vehicles, especially the Humvee.

The story has no source link I could find and, again with respect to the writer, offers not much in the way of information other than, in my opinion, leaving behind the image of throngs of American combat troops in Iraq, at least one of which is a member of my family, sporting about in these jerry-rigged vehicles. That's far from the case.

This issue is not only not new but there have been several developments in its telling over the past year worthy of note, with at least one thorough article from December here addressing some of the specifics.

There are two actual armor programs for Humvees, the up-armor HMMWV or XM1114, which is a standard variant of the basic design, and add-on kits. The up-armored version includes an air-conditioned cab and modifications to vehicle suspension to handle the added weight, whereas the kits are simply attached to existing vehicles.

To put it in hard numbers, of 8,105 up-armored Humvees initially requested, more than 5,900 have so far been produced. The rest are expected to be ready by March 2005. These are the vehicles most widely discussed and are those supplied by Armor Holdings. Additionally, to date 9,146 armor kits have been installed of 9,776 produced.

According to DoD, Humvees that lack armor are carried into Iraq atop flatbed trucks and, once there, are used only inside the relative safety of U.S. bases.

While I'm usually loathe to give him credit for any matter, even Senator Kerry became personally involved in the production issue back before December.

Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry wrote Rumsfeld Friday that two other armor and protective materials companies indicated their ability to boost production.

The story actually goes back to well before October when it was widely reported that a reserve unit refused to undertake an assignment. That story was initiated by CBS and Sixty Minutes.

Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

And MSNBC broached the issue as far back as May of last year here.

The military is 1,800 armored Humvees short of its own stated requirement for Iraq. Despite desperate attempts to supply bolt-on armor, many soldiers still ride around in light-skinned Humvees. This is a latter-day jeep that, as Brig. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, assistant division commander of the 1st Armored Division, conceded in an interview, "was never designed to do this ... It was never anticipated that we would have things like roadside bombs in the vast number that we've had here." One newly arrived officer, Lt. Col. Timothy Meredith, says his battalion had just undergone months of training to rid itself of "tank habits" and get used to the Humvees. "We arrived here expecting to do a lot of civil works," says Meredith.

Since that time it has become reasonably clear that there were many contributing factors to this issue. Some blame can certainly be pointed at the Bush Administration for failing to predict every eventuality of a war - though I doubt any administration ever has. But from the Clinton draw down to laborious military procurement practices, the need for manufacturers to upgrade production capabilities, as well as the need for additional raw materials, there is no single cause or one-stop fix to the issue.

However, it has been a priority issue for some time, more armored vehicles have long since been deployed and the issue appears to have ongoing oversight through both the press and the legislature. The plywood Humvee in the picture accompanying the story was most likely jerry-rigged by the soldiers themselves, as were many, most with steel, through out this issue.

Finally, it should at least be noted that veterans of any war, including from WWI to Vietnam often scrounged, invented or even stole equipment and ideas which made them feel however more secure while proudly and honorably serving their country in harm's way.

I am in no way pronouncing the issue as resolved. But it has not been lacking from analysis, wide attention and some remedy, either.

This post also available at Blogger News.

Comments

[Collin Baber]

A few years from now, the entire Iraqi occupation saga will be over.

[marxylius]

That's the problem...a few years. Vietnam was a few years as well, wasn't it ?

Hello FBI people...here I am again...:)

I love the US interpetation of freedom of speech at the moment...

[Anonymous MSgt]

The problem is that we are using HMMWV trucks instead of M113 tracks. The HMMWV was never designed to be an armored car, and hanging that much weight on a vehicle with only four light-truck tires is asking for sway and rollover problems. Check out the SuperGavin on combatreform.com for examples of how they are upgrading these excellent AFVs in-theatre.