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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (19166)	12/9/2003 8:23:28 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793618

I am glad this is not making the major media. The Pentagon Weenies would probably have a shit fit. "Strategy Page." ARMORED WARFARE: The Butler Mobile December 8, 2003: Since the heavy combat in Iraq ended last April, American troops have been improvising additional protection for their unarmored vehicles. One of these efforts has become something of a standard. Capt. Darryl M. Butler, an engineer officer for the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade (attached to the 1st Armored Division) developed a armor kit for Humvees. A half ton of steel plate, cut into 25 precisely measured pieces, is attached to a Humvee in a few hours and provides protection from fragments (from bombs and shells). Called the MPAH (Modified Protection for un-Armored Humvees) kit, nearly fifty have been installed and several hundred more kits have been ordered. Unofficially it's called “The Butler Mobile,” The kits are being made and installed (under Captain Butler's supervision) by Iraqi contractors. This provides jobs for friendly Iraqis, and protection from the hostile ones. Civil Affairs troops are most vulnerable to attack, because they often travel without the protection of a convoy. Civil Affairs work consists of traveling around to talk and negotiate with Iraqi leaders (official and otherwise) and supervising reconstruction projects. Civil Affairs units have no armored vehicles, and only rifles, pistols and machine-guns as weapons. The most common form of transportation is the Humvee. The Butler Mobile is not only a life saver, but it also makes the job a lot less nerve wracking. Captain Butler is a reservist, an engineer who works for the Corps of Engineers. December 2, 2003: The Q-Truck in Iraq- Army soldiers in Iraq are modifying their vehicles to carry additional weapons, usually the M2 .50-caliber machine gun (first used prior to World War II), the M249 SAW (a 5.56-millimeter machine gun), and the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher (firing 40-milimeter grenade rounds). The crew-served weapons are mostly going on the Humvees, (no surprise there), but some are also being placed on the M872 Heavy Equipment Trailer trucks. This might sound unusual, but the trucks are large, can carry a lot of ammunition, and guerillas in Iraq might not suspect they are armed at first. Such things are not new. In Vietnam, M113 armored personnel carriers were equipped with extra machine guns. Jeeps and trucks were also augmented with extra guns and armor. The major objective in this case is to get the guerillas attacking the supply lines to go for what they thought was a supply truck. Once pulled in, they get more than they bargained for. It is the same principle used by the heavily armed and disguised Q-ships of World Wars I and II, which operated against submarines. The intention is to deter attacks by creating doubt in the mind of the guerillas as to whether the soft target is really as soft as it appears to be. How well will it work? Remains to be seen. Some guerillas never adapted, and ended up getting wiped out. Others did adapt, and forced the occupation forces to develop new tactics to adapt to the guerillas’ adaptation. - Harold C. Hutchison strategypage.com