Wednesday Weapons – M.R.A.P – Our troops deserve them

It is perhaps appropriate that on the day our country buried a hero we should talk about what may have saved his life.

It is an outrage that our troops are driving around Afghanistan in leased Humvees and Toyota Hi-luxs and Landcruisers. these vehicles provide, as we know all too painfully, zero protection from mines and IEDs.

Helen Clark committed our troops (both SAS and PRT) to Afghanistan, and Phil Goff was Defence Minister from 2005 – 2008. They committed those troops to Afghanistan ill-equipped and ultimately it is them, through their inane purchases of equipment that should be held accountable for any deaths through lack of proper equipment.

In 2003 Labour’s cabinet approved the NZDF purchase of 105 LAVs. A vehicle chosen from a specification in the Tender documents that bizarrely included a requirement and specification for the wing upgrade of a P3 Orion. Since that purchase at a massive cost of $672 million. Since then not even half of them have been deployed and even then only three overseas. This is shameful.

For the record the NZLAV are of little or no use in Bamiyan Province.

For the $673 million (plus bribes) the NZ Army could have had a much more useful set of protection vehicles. At between $500,000 and $650,000 each our troops could be travelling in safety in properly developed MRAP vehicles. And it isn’t like this is a new development either. Instead of 105 useless, never to be deployed NZLAVs we could have had their entire truck force replaced with about 1300 MRAP vehicles, covered the replacement of the Unimogs, never bought the equally hopeless Pinzgauers and at the same time given our troops more capability than they have fighting out of leased Humvees and Toyota Hiluxs.

MRAP vehicles usually have “V” shaped hulls to deflect away any explosive forces originating below the vehicle, thereby protecting the vehicle and its passenger compartment. Typically these explosions are from land mines, but they can also be IEDs. This design dates to the 1970s when it was first introduced in 1978 with the South African Buffel (Buffalo) armored personnel carrier (APC). However, the TSG/FPI Cougar (designed by a British-led US team in 2004 for a USMC requirement) became the springboard from which the MRAP program was launched.

These vehicles are tough. One such tough vehicle is the Oshkosh M-ATV. (Oshkosh Video)

Oshkosh M-ATV

From the image above, you may think that this is a Landrover/Pinzgauer type vehicle. It isn’t for a start you will never see an endorsement like the one below for  Landrover or Pinzgauer and they are also much bigger than both of those vehicles.

This photo (below) gives you some idea of their size.

Oshkosh M-ATV beside the Pentagon (Photo courtesy of LIFE)

They are a real vehicle, for real work and even better they save lives.

Another MRAP vehicle, similar, but bigger than the M-ATV from Oshkosh is the Cougar. The photo below shows a Cougar after it drove over a mine, and continued back to base, where all the troops exited safely, alive. Cougar also comes in a 6×6 variant called the Cougar HE. (Future Weapons Video of Cougar)

Cougar hit with mine and driven at 20 mph by crew back to safe area on three tires and a rim. Crew sustained mild concussions.

With smart procurement decisions, the NZ Army could quickly equip our troops wit appropriate and safer vehicles for a whole lot less than the cost of the NZLAVs.