Pentagon phasing out MRAPs, but bomb threat remainPentagon phasing out MRAPs, but bomb threat remain.....The Pentagon plans to liquidate most of its $45 billion fleet of armored vehicles, betting that wars like Iraq and Afghanistan won't be fought again soon and that the holy grail of combat trucks — one light enough to be nimble and strong enough to withstand roadside bombs — becomes reality in the next five years.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/19/pentagon-mraps-roadside-bombs-here-to-stay/2437661/
It may be wishful thinking to suppose U.S. enemies won't use improvised explosive devices, according to a recent report from the Center for Naval Analyses, a government think-tank. That report says the IED is probably here to stay as a threat to U.S. troops abroad.
"It is cost effective," said Joseph Trevithick, a research associate at GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy organization. "You can make explosives out of just about anything."
The Pentagon is doing its best to make Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks — which saved thousands of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan — part of the past. The Army plans to sell off 13,000 of its 21,000-vehicle fleet of MRAPs and mothball about 4,000 others, Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told Congress this spring. It will keep about 4,000 MRAPs for use by troops who clear roads of improvised explosive devices.
MRAPs have become too costly to operate and to fix when they break down, Odierno said.
"That's a good investment decision," he said. "So we're keeping some for the future, we're using some in our current training, and we'll divest of the others. Because we simply cannot afford to maintain them."
The Pentagon, instead, plans to invest in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the successor to the Humvee, a Cold War relic that entered service in 1985. The new combat truck has been on the drawing board for years and was delayed when the Pentagon chose MRAPs as a faster solution to protecting troops from IEDs.
The Pentagon envisions the JLTV to be the best of many worlds: light enough for Marines to transport by helicopter, strong enough to protect troops and affordable enough to replace tens of thousands of Humvees. The base cost, without added armor, is $250,000 per truck, while basic MRAPs averaged $500,000. The Army wants 20,000 of them.
STORY: Gates: MRAPs save 'thousands' of troop lives
Combining protection and mobility is a tough trick to pull off, Trevithick said. Building an IED-resistant truck requires a V-shaped hull to deflect the bomb's blast. That means it must have an elevated chassis, which makes it bigger, heavier and harder to transport.
The first Army unit won't have the trucks until 2018, and it will be 2035 before it can replace one-third of its combat trucks, according to Lt. Col. Jerome Pionk, an Army spokesman.
Three contractors — AM General, Oshkosh Defense and Lockheed Martin — are scheduled to deliver 22 JLTV trucks by August to begin 14 months of testing. AM General is the maker of the Humvee, and Oshkosh has built the all-terrain version of the MRAP for use in Afghanistan. A contract for production is likely in 2015.
The decision to sell off MRAPs and wait for the JLTV to arrive rests in part on the Obama administration's military strategy that stresses avoiding long-term operations to stabilize countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Insurgents there have made IEDs their weapon of choice. Almost two-thirds of deaths and wounds in Afghanistan come from makeshift bombs, according to the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.
The IED threat to U.S. troops operating abroad is likely to remain through 2020, according to a report last month by the Center for Naval Analysis.
"The depth of the IED threat to deployed forces depends in part on choices made by the U.S. government," according to the report, titled "The Post-Afghanistan IED Threat Assessment." "Dispatching forces to operations that have conditions similar to those encountered in (Iraq) and (Afghanistan) will enhance the IED threat. Pursuing a more conservative path will help mitigate the IED threat to deployed forces."