Dispatch from the Front VIII

Over time, my correspondent has had a lot to say about the quantity and quality of armored vehicles in Iraq. I'll give you a small taste of it in this dispatch.

The uparmor/(aka come from the factory armored Humvee) is only marginally better than the various add on versions that showed up. Thankfully, at least something was done since of course it was better than zero or the junkyard scrap slapped on.

Tanks of old used to be bolted together and then it was found by actual impact every bolt and seam was a weak spot where the splits from the blast would occur and allow in overpressure and plasma. then tank hulls and turrets were cast in a huge solid mass. The m1 abrahms and similar designs are able to get away with a little bit different design because of the type of manufacturing techniques and the armor used.

The uparmor has a million seems and bolts so you can imagine what can happen under the right circumstances. However, it has saved a lot of lives. But then hundreds have been killed and thousands upon thousands injured because of our less than stellar equipment... Where is the country that built a tank every 5 minutes? Why didn't a massive push for a new class of armor get started in fall or even winter of 03/04. Now, it seems all proposals will have next gen armor coming in some nebulous far off future date.

Some of the major complaints, the Humvee is way under powered now that it carries tons of armor with follow on problems in suspension, transmission and handling/balance, overheating.

Electrical system way way way off base since we stick hundreds of watts powers of equipment on it now and it can only handle less.

Incredibly cramped and stupid design for visibility, egress/ingress, room to shoot and move etc. I could beat the designers of it. Just try and get in out or shoot quickly with nothing on... Then do it with 60 pounds of battle gear and body armor that extends your chest circumference, the steering bumps into you after all that. I wear elbow pads now (should anyway) because of the awkward steering moves one must make now. insanity.

There is None/zero/nada engine heat shielding in the vehicle. Insane. If the troop is beat down just from the ride they are much less effective once on the ground(soviet tanks have this problem of small heated cramped spaces and their combat effectiveness of crew is reduced. if you are fresh and
alert...) We have had temps of over 240 degrees inside the vehicles. Let's just say I would love to take the designers of that fiasco for a ride in the combat of Iraq's pleasant weather.

(To be fair, ac has been installed on many vehicles in response, when it works, but its capacity is like 50 joules and with outside temps combined with engine heat (i am just making these numbers up) say 75 joules you can see which wins. Once the summer heat ebbs we will usually do much better.

(The engine is constantly needing to be serviced but it has delicate parts you shouldn't step on so there is lots of signs "no step" well then where to step einstein??!!) The turret gunners have little protection (none before the installation of shields and they took large casualties/kia) there is ZERO bottom and most upward side angle blast protection. Guess where the fuel tank is?

Cargo? Duh, was that an afterthought or simply no thought? You need ammo, more ammo and food and water and gear and people and more gear and ammo...

Bottom line. Look at how the israelis have configured their vehicles and armor for urban combat. Their turrets, armor and gun ports are extremely effective. We have in typical GI fashion made cargo racks, smasher bumpers, armor additions etc to make up for these shortcomings but you can only go so far. All the new proposals have intact bucket hulls with shaped or vhull to deflect blast.

The Brads and Strykers are all aluminum armor with both having rapidly been added reactive armor(brad) and slat and ceramic plates(stryker) after heavy urban combat quickly disabused all involved as their effectiveness against rpgs. What burns me up is: the rpg has been around since the 1950s, it IS THE principle weapon we face. Its ordance has continually been upgraded.

When we field a new proposal why don't they take one out and just shoot the 4 sides with an rpg as a minimum starting point? (weight is the principle limiting factor i know but...) The Stryker was fielded HERE and after less than a month of getting pierced they scrambled like madmen to put the slat "armor" on which is not really armor but a predetonator, thankfully its fairly effective.

Now it's way too wide. who cares, they smash through it anyway just like we do. Enough rant for now. later

By this time next week, the Iraqi Constitutional referendum will have taken place. (Inshallah, as they say in Iraq.) I'll have some more of my correspondent's thoughts on Sunni-Shia-Kurd relations.

Dispatch from the Front I
Dispatch from the Front II
Dispatch from the Front III
Dispatch from the Front IV
Dispatch from the Front V
Dispatch from the Front VI
Dispatch from the Front VII