WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's new armored trucks in Afghanistan are significantly reducing troop deaths in roadside attacks at a time when insurgent bombings are at record levels, according to statistics provided to USA TODAY.Good work again by reporter Tom Vanden Brook.
The additional side armor for defeating EFPs consists of 18mm plates constructed of several layers of different materials. This material, which costs about $2,000 per square foot, breaks up the EFP molten copper "warhead" that an EFP produces to slice through conventional armor. For the six wheel Cougar, the EFP armor kit weighs 2.5 tons, and costs $152,000.This account makes more sense. The weight of one square foot of composite armor a foot thick (that is to say, a cube of armor) would have been substantial, to say the least.
Implications for Alcoa and others helping supply aluminum plates?The MRAP has higher clearance and a curved hull below the vehicle, which serves to deflect explosions. Inside the vehicle, blast-proof seats are positioned up front to absorb the shock of an explosion for the driver and passenger seats, and in the back are shock-proof seats that stabilize soldiers in the event of an explosion, as long as they have their feet off the ground. Three- to 4-inch bulletproof glass accompanies armored steel plates that surround the vehicle — 5/8-inch on the top and doors and ½-inch everywhere else. The inside is coated with a liner made from
aluminum and Kevlar, which is designed to absorb an explosion if it breaches the steel.
“We switched to using steel armored plates instead of the original aluminum because steel is a much tougher metal, and we also realized that aluminum releases toxins that can kill soldiers when it becomes severely damaged. Steel does not have that effect,” said Littleton Cutler, a subcontractor for BAE, the designer of the MRAP that toured the plants and one of several contractors overall.
A news item concerning MRAPs caught my eye today.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.
The surge in attacks is putting the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) to the test, and so far they are largely passing. Statistics reviewed by the AP show that while bombings involving the deadly penetrating explosives have jumped by about 40 percent in the past three months, deaths in such bombings have dropped by as much as 17 percent.
The story relates the increased use in Iraq of explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, and the manner in which troop casualties have decreased largely because of the use of protected vehicles. The story reminded me of a news story that I subjected to criticism last year, "A tool of war trumped" by St. Petersburg Times writer David DeCamp.
DeCamp's story portrayed the EFP as an ad hoc modification of the roadside bomb, and further implied that the explosive devices would serve to nullify the strategic use of the MRAP in the Iraq War.
Over time, my criticism of DeCamp has been borne out.
The MRAP has been used effectively. EFP production has been hampered by destroying factories and interrupting the supply of the parts requiring substantial engineering. And, as I predicted, technology designed to thwart EPPs in turn is reaching the front lines in time to aid our troops against the threat of EFPs (armor and detection technologies, that is).
Marines patrolling for roadside bombs in Iraq will soon have a new detection device, developed by a company in Sarasota.
In late May, Gyrocam Systems LLC won a $43-million contract to provide the military's Counter-IED improvised explosive device project with 67 of its triple-sensor cameras. Twenty-seven of the units will be in Iraq by the end of summer.
Gyrocam's cameras will be mounted on telescoping masts on armored vehicles. The cameras have 360-degree coverage and transmit images in high-resolution color, heat-sensitive infrared and night-vision.
I'll keep looking for a story that reflects the existence of composite armor technology that diffuses the slug of an EFP.
QUANTICO, Va. — The Marine general in charge of the program to send new armored vehicles to Iraq says the Pentagon has developed "a solution" to protect the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks from the deadliest type of armor-piercing roadside bomb, called explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs.The Pentagon's method for combating EFPs involves adding armor to the sides of MRAPs, Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said in an interview with USA TODAY. The armor is a modified version of what the military calls Frag Kit 6, Brogan said. "I have a solution for EFPs, and I'm going to put it on the trucks I've already bought," Brogan said.
Read about Frag Kit 6 at Defense Review.
It was within the last four months that the St. Petersburg Times published a story bemoaning the supposed fact that MRAPs were already obsolete because of the use of explosively formed penetrators in Iraq.
The current story supports the criticism I leveled at David DeCamp's "Tool of war trumped."
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), land mines and RPGs (or, what we like to call the lethal trifecta) have plagued Coalition Forces--and primarily the U.S. Army and Marine Corps (USMC)--since the start of the Iraqi insurgency/guerilla war. More recently explosively-formed penetrators a.k.a. explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) have been wreaking some serious havoc on Coalition troops. It's this lethal explosives threat trifecta (IEDs + EFPs + RPGs) against which the Urban Fighter is designed to protect. However, instead of protecting U.S. troops (and other Coalition Forces like the Canadians), it's going to protect Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers/warfighters in their own back yard against their immediate enemies, who also use land mines, IEDs, EFPs and RPGs (Rocket-Propelled Grenades).
(DefenseReview.com)
 clipped from www.defensereview.com |
"We have a solution that is made up of standard and new materials in a configuration that will defeat a number of the EFP devices," said Jim Tuten, director of research development and armor programs at Protected Vehicles, which is based in North Charleston, S.C. "We have tested it against a number of them at several different government facilities successfully."
Force Protection, a major Pentagon MRAP contractor, has anti-EFP armor in a vehicle called the Mastiff, which it has sold the British military.
One of my favorite blogs, the delightful across-the-pond EU Referendum, had criticized the Mastiff version of the Force Protection Cougar because it lacked windows with which soldiers could make themselves aware of their surroundings before disembarking at the rear of the vehicle. Apparently, the EFP protections designed by Force Protection resulted in the elimination of the windows.
Linking back to EU Referendum helped me stumble across a blog entry from 2006 that I had missed, on IEDs, EFPs, and military vehicles. Pay them a visit.
