The war has been going for almost two years.
And during that time we've gone from a few hundred armored Humvees to about 15,000. I don't know how many more we need but 15,000 is quite a lot.
They have more than enough capacity to produce more.
Humvee Armor Suppliers Working Around the Clock
nationaldefensemagazine.org
but OTOH
Army moving to speed up production of armor for fighting forces
PENTAGON The Army is negotiating with a company that makes armored Humvees that says it could turn out a hundred a month more than it has been.
The Army had thought Armor Holdings was working at capacity until the company told the news media it could make more, although it would take at least two months to increase its production rate.
But the Jacksonville, Florida, company says it's producing 450 armored Humvees a month now, and is ahead of schedule by 330 vehicles. A further speed-up could mean the Army would have to ask Congress for more money.
kwwl.com
So it would appear that the army believed the companies where at capacity but they really can increase production a bit, without building whole new production lines.
Please don't tell me that we don't have enough money.
We easily have enough money to buy more armor and are doing so. What we don't have enough money to do is to buy the best of all possible equipment in massive quanities as soon as it becomes available and have all of it ready to use by the miltiary in a very short amount of time. No one can do that when you have a decently large military and technology and techniques can change rapidly.
More are armored Humvees -
"Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said at a Pentagon news conference that in August 2003, industry was producing only 15 armored Humvees per month. "Commanders there at that point started to face this growing improvised explosive device challenge and said that they would like to have higher numbers of armored Humvees than they had originally projected," he said.
American industry responded, and today about 450 armored Humvees are being made each month. There are 19,000 Humvees in the U.S. Central Command area of operations. This area extends from Kazakhstan to Kenya. Of these, officials said, 15,000 are armored vehicles or have been fitted with armor. "
dod.mil
So it would seem 15,000 out 19,000 are armored. At 450 a month it would take 8 and 1/2 months to get every single one armored, but not all of them are in Iraq or Afghanistan, so you probably don't need every last one with armor. It looks to me like this is a problem that has mostly been taken care of. The problem is not that we have a bunch of unarmored humvees now, but that we used to have mostly unarmored humvees even a year in to the war. It seems not an issue of really having to fix the problem any more but an issue of "why did it take so long to get it fixed".
more from that link ----
"The armor issue certainly is a high priority for the military. "People like having that security, that's for sure," said an Army spokesman. The Army is speeding up production of armor add-on kits not only for Humvees, but also for all wheeled vehicles that will be deployed to the CENTCOM area. To date, the Army has added armor to 507 heavy tactical trucks, to 492 medium tactical vehicles, to two heavy equipment trailers, to eight M-915 trucks and to 187 palletized load system vehicles.
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So to the extent that it is still a current problem it might be that we need to, and now are, providing such armor for other vehicles besides Humvees. M1s, M2s, and M3s already have stronger armor then the armored Humvees, but apparently trucks and loading vehicles and such are now starting to recieve armor.
Of course even the armor on an M1 isn't invunerable, and the armor on any of these trucks or Humvees will easily be penetrated by a hit from an RPG or anti-tank missile, but at least they will be able to stop rifle rounds. (and unarmored Humvee can stop light shrapnel but it can't really stop bullets, maybe .22 LR rounds but no bullets that you are likely to encounter on a battlefield).
Also see -
"Of 30,000 total wheeled vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan, roughly 22,000 have some sort of armor. Whitcomb relates that the last full brigade that deployed into Iraq from Kuwait had roughly 1,000 wheeled vehicles and almost every one of them had armored protection of some sort. Vehicles without armor are now typically loaded onto military trucks and driven into Iraq that way."
nationalreview.com
Tim |
