MRAP: Bringing the war back home.
We're bringing the war back home
Where it ought to have been before!
We'll kill all the bees And spiders and flies
And we wont play in iceboxes lying on their sides
We'll wash our hands after wee-wee.
And if we're a girl, before!
And we'll march, march, march, et cetera!
'Til we never do march no more!
(All together, now, boys!)
-- Firesign Theater, from Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, 1970.
From last April: "As these words are written, the Army’s last Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle to serve in Iraq is making its way west across the Mediterranean aboard a cargo vessel called the Ocean Crescent. According to DoD, the MRAP will go on display at the 1st Cavalry Division Museum at Fort Hood, Texas 'and represent the end of an era.'"
Before the nostalgia takes over, the MRAP is finding a new home amongst our militarized police, federal, state and local:
Homeland Security Is Serving Warrants Using Mine-Resistant Vehicles - 3/4/13
DHS-HSI Homeland Security Investigations El Paso SRT MRAP Armored Vehicle - YouTube internal MRAP Tour, including weapons mount - 2:44 - 3/13/12
Homeland Security team trains for high-risk missions - 3/13/13 Florida MRAP training with 34 second "conga line rescue" video....
Obviously these grown-up police boys with their grown-up toys haven't seen this article:
"This Is What A Homemade Bomb Can Do To The Army's Toughest Truck."
8 comments:
Along with gun & ammo skills, time to learn IED making and placement.
So much to do, so little time before AmRev II.
B Woodman
III-PER
The crew of that MRAP were severely injured (DUH!) but survived. The Cougars are fine for roads but suck in soft ground, cross country ops. Cammo'ed ditch traps are very effective at stopping them.
The machines are primarily designed to protect the crews inside from injury in a blast. Loosing a wheel or axle will still mission kill the vehicle though, so how much do you really need to do that?
According to Wikipedia; during the Winter War, when the Soviet Air Force was bombing Finland with incendiary and cluster bombs, Vyacheslav Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that they were not bombing, but delivering food to starving Finns. The Finns responded by attacking invading Soviet tanks with Molotov cocktails, which they claimed were "a drink to go with the food". What does this have to do with anything? Nothing.....yet.
Was talking with a friend who's been dealing guns a long time (retired now) and he told me a story about how most people don't understand ballistics. A guy he knew who worked at a steel plant making armor for the early versions of these vehicles came up with a special design to give my friend as a present. The steel specialist (probably from the factory up in Portland) said it was "bullet proof". My friend said "nonsense". They went back and forth but agreed to meet at the range next day. The steel guy set up the target (a chicken) and my friend had a go at it, with a .300 H&H (IIRC). Ding! and the target went over. The steel guy said "Sure you knocked it over, but that's to be expected". They walked over and there was a hole in the "bullet-proof" target. My friend explained that at that speed the bullet's not just going very fast, but the air in front of it is like the air in front of an Apollo reentry vehicle - superheated. The bullet is melting its way through the steel, not punching it.
I haven't done any high speed infrared photography of fast, heavy bullets to check this out for myself, but it seems plausible. Whatever the reason, it went through the steel. And that's what goes on these vehicles.
Fine with me . . .
Cocktails. Yesireeebob, I've drank a few made with vodka. :) Although, the recipe could change due to the arrival of uninvited guests.
Woodman,
I would have thought IED making/placement would have been on the agenda for a long time. The loyalists are going to have to move their troops/supplies around some way so the insurgents will have to interdict those movements.
As for the MRAPs, everything I've read about them is that they are unsuited to going off-road. The information I've gleaned is that the running gear is quite exposed to ground-level fire and not especially armored such that a .223 round or two through the differentials should pretty much stop them dead.
Why go to the trouble to digging a ditch trap when a tree or even telephone pole barricade would be just as effective. Once they stop, it should be simple to disable the running gear after which a paintball barrage would blind the occupants. After that, the occupants can either surrender or allowed to bake in their nice armored oven. Hopefully the occupants could be terminated without doing excessive damage to their equipment/supplies.
I keep finding pictures of our Cougar all over the internet! Crazy! I was there that day in the Wrecker bout 50m in front of the cougar when it got hit, we were conducting Route Clearance Operations in the Anbar Procince of Iraq. EOD estimated 300-500 lbs of explosives. The crew sustained major injuries and the TC later died from his injuries.... Just want to help make sure correct info is out there, I have seen many posts that were way off! Carry on III%
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