February 14, 2010
It's unlikely that most soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan will mourn the demise of the Humvees — the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles.
The light utility vehicles never were intended to serve as armored cars. But that's exactly what soldiers needed when improvised explosive devices became the weapon of choice among the enemy in Iraq and then later Afghanistan. More than 1,700 deaths in Iraq alone led to demands that our soldiers be provided with better protection.
The Army, in turn, decided this year to end new money requests in its recent budget proposal.
The 2,620 vehicles ordered from the Mishawaka, Indiana-based AM General will be the last produced unless Congress steps in.
The budget does include $989 million for maintaining the current Humvee fleet so that the vehicles can be used on missions where it wouldn't be practical for its replacement, the heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles or MRAPs....
....The Army provided no new money for the Humvee in the service's recent budget proposal. Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, an Army spokesman, says the 2,620 vehicles ordered from Mishawaka, Ind.-based AM General will be the last as the Army moves on to newer designs.
Unless the decision is reversed, the Humvee will end a remarkable 30-year run that extended beyond the battlefield into popular culture....
__________________
“This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.” —T.R. Fehrenbach
“We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same." --David Horowitz
You can't replace all the Humvees with MRAPs. That's ridiculous. After 2011, then what. Keep repairing the old fleet?
There had better be a replacement utility vehicle on somebody's drawing board. (Hopefully not Toyota)
Bring back the Jeep I guess.
__________________
"...But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive."
Shakespeare - Henry V Lazy Bob Ranch
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A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
You can't replace all the Humvees with MRAPs. That's ridiculous. After 2011, then what?
Obama will give us two options:
__________________
“This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.” —T.R. Fehrenbach
“We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same." --David Horowitz
__________________
“This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.” —T.R. Fehrenbach
“We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same." --David Horowitz
Couldn't they just "upgrade" much of the Humvee fleet, like give it a more powerful engine, tougher transmission, tougher steering, etc...so that it can comfortably handle being armored up if necessary?
Unfortunately, the money for that has been deleted/cut/reallocated.
And the service life of all our vehicles, both ground and air, have been seriously compromised due to the OPTEMPO. We have put on 20 years of use in 7 years. The normal life cycle replacements are years from coming into service, because we had not anticipated needing them so soon.
We are in a position now similar to the family who has a car that they planned to replace next year, but the savings had to be spent on something else, and at the same time, we had to take a job that requires driving four times as far as we had been traveling to get to work.
With the anticpated budget shortfalls, debt, and recession, there is not going to be an easy fix. We could be using these same HMMWVs for many decades.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
The MRAP is just a mobile version of the FOB mindset.
Stay on the road men, drive slow, drive safe, be careful...
I wonder how many decision makers have stock or job offers in the companies that stand to benefit from this debacle.
__________________ Opinions stated in this post are solely those of the author, and in no way reflect the opinions or policies of The Department of Defense, The United States Army, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Screen Actors Guild, The Boy Scouts, The Good, The Bad, or The Ugly. These opinions are provided purely as overly sarcastic social commentary and are not meant to be used for mission planning or navigation.
"Make sure your own mask is secure before assisting others"
-Airplane Safety Briefing
Yeah. pink. Like being sarcastic. NO!??!!! "upgrade" much of the Humvee fleet, like give it a more powerful engine, tougher transmission, tougher steering, etc...so that it can comfortably handle being armored up if necessary THAT turned it into the POS it is now.
If you want to improve it stop improving it.
In the 80's when it came out, we took a bunch to Biggs AAF and srtipped them down and called them Desert Mobility Vehicle Systems. They came with a motorcycle (That we never got to use ). Then we ran the crap out of them along the Border (with no weapons go figure, a gentler time?) You know those two right angles in southwest Arizona? I've been there.
Occassoinally violating the territorial intergrity of our southern neighbor.
"Ask that guy where we are."
"What makes you think I speak Spanish?"
"Isn't your first name Armando?"
"Doesn't mean I speak Spanish."
"I'll do it myself. . . (I took two years in High School). . . " Hola, Senior. Donde' es Mexico?"
"Mexico? Aqui es Mexico!"
"Mount up!"
Yeah. pink. Like being sarcastic. NO!??!!! "upgrade" much of the Humvee fleet, like give it a more powerful engine, tougher transmission, tougher steering, etc...so that it can comfortably handle being armored up if necessary THAT turned it into the POS it is now.
If you want to improve it stop improving it.
In the 80's when it came out, we took a bunch to Biggs AAF and srtipped them down and called them Desert Mobility Vehicle Systems. They came with a motorcycle (That we never got to use ). Then we ran the crap out of them along the Border (with no weapons go figure, a gentler time?) You know those two right angles in southwest Arizona? I've been there.
Occassoinally violating the territorial intergrity of our southern neighbor.
"Ask that guy where we are."
"What makes you think I speak Spanish?"
"Isn't your first name Armando?"
"Doesn't mean I speak Spanish."
"I'll do it myself. . . (I took two years in High School). . . " Hola, Senior. Donde' es Mexico?"
"Mexico? Aqui es Mexico!"
"Mount up!"
One of the many things I like about Arizona is the number of "right angles" it possesses!
__________________ "I took a different route from most and came into Special Forces..." - Col. Nick Rowe
Don't worry. I am sure the chinese will build and sell us something high quality that we can counnt on. After all they are our friends now.
Don't give them any ideas!
__________________
“This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.” —T.R. Fehrenbach
“We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same." --David Horowitz
plenty of folks with 100 pound brains developing shit that they will never use...
...and we HAVE to use it.
I heard a good story from a buddy of mine that is trying to bridge the gp between 100 pound brains and the soldiers they "punish"
The "100 pound brain" was visibly befuddled when he saw how hard it was to get in and out of a gazillion ton armored truck in full kit and NVGs on your head. The slide rule doesn't take cover the human factor.
...sure is easy to design combat vehicles when you wear khaki pants and a polo shirt.
__________________ Opinions stated in this post are solely those of the author, and in no way reflect the opinions or policies of The Department of Defense, The United States Army, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Screen Actors Guild, The Boy Scouts, The Good, The Bad, or The Ugly. These opinions are provided purely as overly sarcastic social commentary and are not meant to be used for mission planning or navigation.
"Make sure your own mask is secure before assisting others"
-Airplane Safety Briefing
You would think they would tell the engineers to take that kind of stuff into consideration....
Have you spent much time around engineers?
__________________
“This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.” —T.R. Fehrenbach
“We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same." --David Horowitz
You would think they would tell the engineers to take that kind of stuff into consideration, or maybe even bring in ex-combat-arms soldiers to help with the design process.
Engineers are given requirements by their program managers. The PMs get the requirements from the DoD acquisitions offices. I don't know where the acquisitions guys get their requirements from - they never want to provide direct access. But every three weeks, they have new requirements to add, which generally requires changing at least two weeks worth of work each time.
Not a lot of former combat-arms types in program management. Even fewer with engineering degrees. Most former military work in Business Development (focusing on winning new contracts, not working on the ones in hand), and not many of them were ever combat-arms.
). Then we ran the crap out of them along the Border (with no weapons
go figure, a gentler time?) You know those two right angles in southwest Arizona? I've been there. 
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