Sunday, July 15, 2007 4:45:58 PM
Making more protective combat vehicles
Photo by Jim Wilson, New York Times -- An early model Cougar, right, led a group of U.S. soldiers in Hit, Iraq, as they searched for roadside bombs in July 2006. Hundreds of such Cougars and RG-31s have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Military contractors are in a race to deploy a new generation of combat vehicles that are more capable of keeping troops overseas safe from the daily onslaught of deadly IEDs.
By Dee DePass, Star Tribune
When Army supply Sgt. Angela Blaze-Green was first deployed to Iraq in 2003, an improvised explosive device went off right outside her base, killing four U.S. soldiers, including one from her brigade.
Troops responded to the threat with some improvisation of their own, she recalls. "We just had regular Humvees, and we welded on steel doors."
The jury-rigged armor hasn't stopped the explosive devices, called IEDs for short, from becoming the insurgents' major weapon. The number of U.S. servicemen and women killed by IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan has swelled to 1,950, roughly half the total combat deaths.
An estimated 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines have been wounded as a result of IEDs. Pete Roland, spokesman for the Joint Munitions Command in Picatinny, N.J., concedes that the numbers are "shocking."
Now U.S. military contractors are in a race to deploy a new generation of combat vehicles that are more capable of protecting troops.
The vehicles' task is to stand up to the land mines, bombs and artillery shells commonly used in IEDs. Meanwhile, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, English firm BAE Systems, General Dynamics in Virginia and even robot makers at the University of Minnesota are developing new technology that can jam, detonate, drive over or scope out IEDs before they are set off.
"The Department of Defense has a huge effort underway and is looking at a lot of different technologies," Roland said. "There is a lot of stuff going on, and an awful lot is classified."
Plenty of moviegoers have already gotten a look at one of the new combat vehicles, however: Dubbed the "Buffalo," it appears in the "Transformers" movie that was released this month.
Blaze-Green, 25, is the mother of an infant and a 2-year-old. Starting her training next month for her third deployment to Iraq, she welcomed the idea of having something to shield her other than a Humvee. "If you can become confident in your equipment, your confidence is raised. ... It gives us something to look forward to," she said.
Of the roughly 70,000 military Humvees in Iraq, fewer than half have extra armor protection. That means they can withstand gunfire but are vulnerable to IEDs.
A $7.6 billion effort
But now, more than $7.6 billion in federal money is being allocated to IED defense.
"One of the biggest efforts underway is to try to stay agile in our tactics and our acquisitions. That is hard for us to do," said U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., a retired Marine colonel who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. "We are a big, powerful country with a big, very bureaucratic, laborious, acquisition process. It just takes years and years for us to buy things. But we are trying to buy things in days and weeks so we can get them in the field."
Alliant Techsystems is working to field a microwave-based IED detonation system. Last fall, the University of Minnesota's center for distributed robotics received $1.95 million to perfect its "throwable" Scout, a 4-inch remote-controlled robot camera that is now being used in Iraq. Outside of Minnesota, BAE Systems and General Dynamics are deploying IED signal jammers. The Army Research Lab in Maryland recently built and fielded a bomb-stopping shield designed for vulnerable Humvees. While it is one solution, the extreme weight of the shield wasn't designed for a regular Humvee.
BAE Systems, which has facilities in Fridley, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia, recently built and shipped 45 "mine rollers" to Iraq and Afghanistan. The contraptions, which are hitched to the front of a convoy's lead truck, use 12-foot-wide metal plates that roll on castors and swivel from side to side. The plates roll over and detonate IEDs just ahead of military supply convoys.
"We got feedback from soldiers [and Marines] that their lives have been saved by the mine-roller system. It works," BAE spokesman Doug Coffey said. The company last week got a $3.4 million order for dozens more of the devices.
Earlier this month, BAE received a contract to build 441 vehicles with V-shaped hulls that can withstand a powerful blast from below and deflect the explosive's power away from the vehicle's passengers.
Known as Mine Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicles, or MRAPs, BAE and at least four other defense firms are building versions of the four- to six-wheeled successors for the Humvee. Congress appropriated $3 billion last year and is offering $4.6 billion more for fiscal 2008, with the goal of eventually fielding 17,000 of the blast-resistant vehicles.
"The Marines have taken a fairly aggressive approach to award contracts," Coffey said. "We have told the government that we can ramp up to building 60 a day by mid-year next year. But the urgency right now is to rapidly field the MRAPs. It's the secretary of defense's highest priority. ... The intent is to rapidly replace the Humvees that are in theater right now."
General Dynamics and South Carolina-based Force Protection won contracts in November, April and June to jointly make 1,655 "Cougar" MRAPs by the end of 2008. The partners sent their first shipment to the Marines two weeks ago.
The vehicles cost $500,000 to $800,000 each, depending on size and weight.
"We have built hundreds of these vehicles [and] we are in partnerships with General Dynamics, Armor Holdings and Textron that will allow us to get up to deliveries of 1,000 a month as of the spring of 2008," said Michael Aldrich, vice president of Force Protection's marketing and government relations. "It's a rather steep ramp-up that we are creating. That will make a significant difference in how the enemy treats us."
For Blaze-Green's father, Carl Riley, who lives in Bloomington, the new technologies can't be in place soon enough.
"I just pray that she gets there and comes back, because my little grandchildren need her. That's the bottom line. They need her," he said. "And the idea of her not being able to be there with them ... it's a hurting feeling."
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725 • ddepass@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1301468.html
Photo by Jim Wilson, New York Times -- An early model Cougar, right, led a group of U.S. soldiers in Hit, Iraq, as they searched for roadside bombs in July 2006. Hundreds of such Cougars and RG-31s have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Military contractors are in a race to deploy a new generation of combat vehicles that are more capable of keeping troops overseas safe from the daily onslaught of deadly IEDs.
By Dee DePass, Star Tribune
When Army supply Sgt. Angela Blaze-Green was first deployed to Iraq in 2003, an improvised explosive device went off right outside her base, killing four U.S. soldiers, including one from her brigade.
Troops responded to the threat with some improvisation of their own, she recalls. "We just had regular Humvees, and we welded on steel doors."
The jury-rigged armor hasn't stopped the explosive devices, called IEDs for short, from becoming the insurgents' major weapon. The number of U.S. servicemen and women killed by IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan has swelled to 1,950, roughly half the total combat deaths.
An estimated 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines have been wounded as a result of IEDs. Pete Roland, spokesman for the Joint Munitions Command in Picatinny, N.J., concedes that the numbers are "shocking."
Now U.S. military contractors are in a race to deploy a new generation of combat vehicles that are more capable of protecting troops.
The vehicles' task is to stand up to the land mines, bombs and artillery shells commonly used in IEDs. Meanwhile, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, English firm BAE Systems, General Dynamics in Virginia and even robot makers at the University of Minnesota are developing new technology that can jam, detonate, drive over or scope out IEDs before they are set off.
"The Department of Defense has a huge effort underway and is looking at a lot of different technologies," Roland said. "There is a lot of stuff going on, and an awful lot is classified."
Plenty of moviegoers have already gotten a look at one of the new combat vehicles, however: Dubbed the "Buffalo," it appears in the "Transformers" movie that was released this month.
Blaze-Green, 25, is the mother of an infant and a 2-year-old. Starting her training next month for her third deployment to Iraq, she welcomed the idea of having something to shield her other than a Humvee. "If you can become confident in your equipment, your confidence is raised. ... It gives us something to look forward to," she said.
Of the roughly 70,000 military Humvees in Iraq, fewer than half have extra armor protection. That means they can withstand gunfire but are vulnerable to IEDs.
A $7.6 billion effort
But now, more than $7.6 billion in federal money is being allocated to IED defense.
"One of the biggest efforts underway is to try to stay agile in our tactics and our acquisitions. That is hard for us to do," said U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., a retired Marine colonel who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. "We are a big, powerful country with a big, very bureaucratic, laborious, acquisition process. It just takes years and years for us to buy things. But we are trying to buy things in days and weeks so we can get them in the field."
Alliant Techsystems is working to field a microwave-based IED detonation system. Last fall, the University of Minnesota's center for distributed robotics received $1.95 million to perfect its "throwable" Scout, a 4-inch remote-controlled robot camera that is now being used in Iraq. Outside of Minnesota, BAE Systems and General Dynamics are deploying IED signal jammers. The Army Research Lab in Maryland recently built and fielded a bomb-stopping shield designed for vulnerable Humvees. While it is one solution, the extreme weight of the shield wasn't designed for a regular Humvee.
BAE Systems, which has facilities in Fridley, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia, recently built and shipped 45 "mine rollers" to Iraq and Afghanistan. The contraptions, which are hitched to the front of a convoy's lead truck, use 12-foot-wide metal plates that roll on castors and swivel from side to side. The plates roll over and detonate IEDs just ahead of military supply convoys.
"We got feedback from soldiers [and Marines] that their lives have been saved by the mine-roller system. It works," BAE spokesman Doug Coffey said. The company last week got a $3.4 million order for dozens more of the devices.
Earlier this month, BAE received a contract to build 441 vehicles with V-shaped hulls that can withstand a powerful blast from below and deflect the explosive's power away from the vehicle's passengers.
Known as Mine Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicles, or MRAPs, BAE and at least four other defense firms are building versions of the four- to six-wheeled successors for the Humvee. Congress appropriated $3 billion last year and is offering $4.6 billion more for fiscal 2008, with the goal of eventually fielding 17,000 of the blast-resistant vehicles.
"The Marines have taken a fairly aggressive approach to award contracts," Coffey said. "We have told the government that we can ramp up to building 60 a day by mid-year next year. But the urgency right now is to rapidly field the MRAPs. It's the secretary of defense's highest priority. ... The intent is to rapidly replace the Humvees that are in theater right now."
General Dynamics and South Carolina-based Force Protection won contracts in November, April and June to jointly make 1,655 "Cougar" MRAPs by the end of 2008. The partners sent their first shipment to the Marines two weeks ago.
The vehicles cost $500,000 to $800,000 each, depending on size and weight.
"We have built hundreds of these vehicles [and] we are in partnerships with General Dynamics, Armor Holdings and Textron that will allow us to get up to deliveries of 1,000 a month as of the spring of 2008," said Michael Aldrich, vice president of Force Protection's marketing and government relations. "It's a rather steep ramp-up that we are creating. That will make a significant difference in how the enemy treats us."
For Blaze-Green's father, Carl Riley, who lives in Bloomington, the new technologies can't be in place soon enough.
"I just pray that she gets there and comes back, because my little grandchildren need her. That's the bottom line. They need her," he said. "And the idea of her not being able to be there with them ... it's a hurting feeling."
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725 • ddepass@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1301468.html
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