Troops seen vulnerable in Humvees Lighter vehicles lack protection

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2003/12/18/troops_seen_vulnerable_in_humvees/

American troops are dying in Iraq and suffering amputations and other massive injuries while they confront the Iraqi insurgency in Humvees not designed to withstand front-line combat.

These lighter Humvees and other military vehicles have become the target of choice for anti-US guerrillas. Shrapnel from a roadside bomb, or even a simple AK-47 rifle round, can slice through the unarmored vehicles -- some of which have little more than vinyl fabric for their roofs and doors, troops who know them say.

"We're kind of sitting ducks in the vehicles we have," said Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Montera, commander of the Long Island, N.Y.-based 310th Military Police Battalion, which has crisscrossed the Iraqi countryside for months in those "soft-top" models.

But the Army does not expect the full complement of a more heavily armored version, designed to withstand armor-piercing bullets and land mines, to arrive in Iraq until the summer of 2005. The Pentagon failed to move them into Iraq in significant numbers because war planners had seriously underestimated how violent the newly liberated nation would be.

Just 1 in 8 Humvees in Iraq are of this more heavily armored variety.

Many in Congress say 18 months is too long to wait and question why assembly lines at the sole production plant for the heavier models aren't running around the clock.

[demsrule4life]

1. That falls in the

no shit category.