Humvee deaths on the rise despite armor upgrades

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[WENDELLKDUNCAN]

Humvee deaths on the rise despite armor upgrades
Updated 5/3/2006 12:18 AM ET
By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Although the Pentagon has strengthened the armor on more than 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year, Pentagon records show.
Most are dying in their Humvees, the workhorse vehicles the military scrambled to armor as the use of improvised explosive devices grew over the past three years.

Pentagon casualty reports say 67 U.S. troops have died this year in attacks on their Humvees involving the so-called IEDs. An additional 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers.

That's up from 27 in Humvees — and an additional 38 deaths involving IED attacks on other vehicles — during the first four months of 2005, according to Pentagon reports and USA TODAY's Iraq war casualty database.

The Pentagon reports did not say whether the Humvees were seeing more action and therefore more likely to be attacked. Military leaders and elected officials such as Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., wanted the added armor to better protect the troops from the IEDs.

Insurgents are changing their tactics, planting more powerful bombs and using different triggering methods to evade U.S. countermeasures, say experts. Newer IEDs are powerful enough to blow apart a 22-ton Bradley Fighting Vehicle or an M1A1 Abrams tank.

"The enemy adapts to everything we do," said military analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Va. "It's not that we haven't found solutions. It's that the enemy has found ways to work around our solutions."

To counter the threat, the Pentagon created the Joint IED Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, earlier this year. That agency plans to spend more than $3.7 billion this year to develop technology to detect or disarm IEDs.

For example, the military ordered 3,858 electronic jamming systems in January from contractor General Dynamics in a deal worth $289 million. The jammers are due in July, Pentagon records show.

"The enemy is employing more lethal munitions that are designed to defeat our armor," says Army Brig. Gen. Dan Allyn, deputy director of JIEDDO.

"There's no single solution, no silver bullet that will guarantee protection of our forces," Allyn says.

Insurgents also use the bombs to drive a wedge between Iraqis and U.S. forces, says Marine Capt. Knox Nunnally, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq.

"You want to react and go after an enemy," Nunnally says. "The civilian population just wants to get away from there."

Roadside bombs also killed more troops in Afghanistan. Ten have been killed this year, compared with one in the first four months of 2005.

More powerful bombs create difficult wounds to treat, says Air Force Maj. Paul "Chip" Gleason, head of orthopedic surgery at the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq. "It's basically like taking a battering ram and driving it through the skin."

Contributing: Gregg Zoroya in Balad, Iraq

Posted 5/2/2006 10:46 PM ET 
Updated 5/3/2006 12:18 AM ET

[Gorilla24D]

Good Info Wendell  .pretty much on target..  the jamming equipment is already there but more is needed.Only works on  the stuff

being  initiated by cell, radio, and the like.Infrared,command wire(self and triggerman detonated) will still get ya.We found buttloads with two types of initiation also.Phone base with a back up command wire.Collapsing circuits also are a monkey wrench.

Hummers are getting penetrated quite often by EFP's , a bomb type being taught by  Hamas,Hezzbolah,and Iranian Intell Officers.

[sgtarky]

quite simply a hmmv never was designed to be an amorer personnel carrier, no matter what they do to. heck when haj has time to bury 10 155mm rounds a m1a1 aint gona protect your arse

[Park_Ave]

Yup, time to patrol and convoy with something even heavier.

[Gorilla24D]

Rg-31 is the ticket for convoys.

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[campjwiii]

If a war machine can be built - it can be destroyed.

I question the armoring of the HMMVEE not only for the weight and strain on the chassis but mainly for the reason that increased resistance makes RPGs more effective against the vehicle and the troops inside.

The only ground armor vehicles that can provide relative protection have Chobham or Dorset Armor.
The limitation with these armored vehicles is that they are too large to operate in urban areas.

As most of the armor is designed to Cold War specifications - I would propose that a new or improved design of wheeled vehicle with the mobility for urban environments protected by Chobham armor and  firepower equal to or greater than the Bradley M3.

None the less -as stated before - a 155 rigged as an IED will destroy just about any armored vehicle.

[RIFLEMAN24G]

Armor is about as good as its gonna get. The heavier the vehicle, the better of chance it's engine burning out fast, especially in a M-1114. That is something that can be improved. IEDs will continue to become more deadlier.

[Greenhat]

Need troops to get out of the vehicles and on their LPCs.