J-10
01-01-2005, 12:16 AM
Army Officer Explains How Armor Adds Costs
Fri Dec 31, 1:30 PM ET
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - Bolting extra armor on Humvee utility vehicles undoubtedly saves soldiers' lives, but it also adds indirectly to operating costs, a senior Army officer said Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, an acquisition official, was not suggesting that adding armor is not worth the expense. He was explaining to reporters the circumstances in which the Army has responded to insurgents' use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that have killed and maimed hundreds of soldiers in Iraq.
The extra 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of weight on each Humvee causes the vehicle's suspension system to wear out three or four times faster than normal, Sorenson said. The extra weight also adds to fuel consumption, he said.
The vast majority of Humvees were not armored initially because they were not intended for use in a high-threat environment and the Army had never seen an IED threat like it faces in Iraq.
Humvees that come off the assembly line with armor already installed — known as "up-armored" Humvees — have a reinforced chassis that is designed to handle the extra weight. Because the Army has not been able to obtain those quickly enough, it has been forced to bolt armor onto ordinary Humvees.
Sorenson said the Army expects to meet its goal of having 8,105 armored Humvees in Iraq by March 2005. It is near 80 percent of that goal.
Sorenson said that when the initial phase of the war ended May 1, 2003, after the Saddam Hussein regime had been ousted from Baghdad, the U.S. military had no idea it would face an extensive IED threat.
The military has responded not only by armoring its Humvees and trucks but by equipping each soldier with improved body armor and pursuing means of defeating IEDs before they explode.
From (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_vehicle_armor_4)
Fri Dec 31, 1:30 PM ET
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - Bolting extra armor on Humvee utility vehicles undoubtedly saves soldiers' lives, but it also adds indirectly to operating costs, a senior Army officer said Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, an acquisition official, was not suggesting that adding armor is not worth the expense. He was explaining to reporters the circumstances in which the Army has responded to insurgents' use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that have killed and maimed hundreds of soldiers in Iraq.
The extra 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of weight on each Humvee causes the vehicle's suspension system to wear out three or four times faster than normal, Sorenson said. The extra weight also adds to fuel consumption, he said.
The vast majority of Humvees were not armored initially because they were not intended for use in a high-threat environment and the Army had never seen an IED threat like it faces in Iraq.
Humvees that come off the assembly line with armor already installed — known as "up-armored" Humvees — have a reinforced chassis that is designed to handle the extra weight. Because the Army has not been able to obtain those quickly enough, it has been forced to bolt armor onto ordinary Humvees.
Sorenson said the Army expects to meet its goal of having 8,105 armored Humvees in Iraq by March 2005. It is near 80 percent of that goal.
Sorenson said that when the initial phase of the war ended May 1, 2003, after the Saddam Hussein regime had been ousted from Baghdad, the U.S. military had no idea it would face an extensive IED threat.
The military has responded not only by armoring its Humvees and trucks but by equipping each soldier with improved body armor and pursuing means of defeating IEDs before they explode.
From (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_vehicle_armor_4)