Monday, July 12, 2004

Associated Press Because of a lack of armor, standard Humvees can't stop bullets or shrapnel. These were destroyed in a September 2003 blast that injured seven U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Ill-equipped Humvees

Desperate soldiers attach homemade armor

Nonmilitary kits spark Army to rush own modifications

By Lisa Zagaroli / Detroit News Washington Bureau

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The standard Humvee was designed to be able to traverse 40-degree slopes, be dropped out of a helicopter and submerged in 5 feet of salt water.

But it can’t stop bullets or shrapnel from explosives.

The problems with the Humvee are well illustrated in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers have been killed and maimed by roadside explosives.

Because the Army didn’t buy enough armored vehicles needed in a war like the one in Iraq, that very lack of combat survivability put soldiers in jeopardy in another way. Troops began adding homemade armor, sandbags and other ballistic protection that could degrade the performance of vehicles never built to carry that kind of weight, rendering them more prone to accidents.

About 15,000 Humvees are in Iraq, carrying troops, emergency equipment, shelter and cargo.

The Army has spent the last few months rushing an “up-armored” version of the Humvee into the war zone, but some soldiers felt they had to take matters into their own hands.

The U.S. Army Reserves’ 428th Transportation Company out of Jefferson City, Mo., for example, got contributions from local businesses to buy 13,000 pounds of 1/4-inch steel that it took with the troops to Iraq earlier this year to pad their canvas Humvees and 5-ton trucks.

“Our armor has helped to protect against shrapnel,” Maj. Keith Porter of the 428th said from Iraq in an e-mail exchange with The Detroit News. “All of the armor was installed. In fact, we installed additional armor on some vehicles.”

Spc. Garett L. Reppenhagen, of Grand Junction, Colo., 29, a reconnaissance scout stationed in Iraq with the 2nd Battalion of the 63rd Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, was worried about riding in vehicles without armor.

“I was scared to death when they told us we would have to bring our old Humvees from the rear to war,” Reppenhagen said in an e-mail to The Detroit News from Ba’Qubah. “It took two months just to get the armor add-ons. We started with the sandbags. Now we have Kevlar blankets in most of our rides. We have some with just sandbags still.”

The Army initially balked at homemade armor kits, but has developed guidelines. Several companies are producing add-on kits, and the Army has rushed its own kit into the field.

“These guys were making a good effort to put armor on their own vehicles, but the armor wasn’t the best in some cases, and in some cases it was probably degrading the performance of some of the vehicles,” said George Jarvis, safety director at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command in Warren.

“There are limitations as to what trucks should be modified with the armor. You shouldn’t modify certain trucks with this add-on weight.”

The extra weight can cause wear and tear on the engine, suspension and tires, and change its low center of gravity to make it more of a rollover threat, acknowledged Craig C. Mac Nab, director of public relations for AM General Corp., which manufactures the Humvee in South Bend, Ind.

At $180,000, the official “up-armored” Humvee is twice the price of the standard version and is able to operate at top capacity with the extra weight.

Critics say the Army shouldn’t have been caught by surprise by the need for more armor in Iraq.

“The signs have been there for many, many years that these more messy, complex conflicts were going to be more what the Army was doing than fighting another superpower, and the Army should have moved much sooner in the direction of preparing for these kinds of conflicts,” said Marcus Corbin, a senior analyst with the Center for Defense Information.

Top Army leaders said they have never turned down any requests from field commanders for more armored vehicles.

“No one has said ‘no’ to any commander at any level, if that commander comes forward needing either additional equipment of any type or additional resources,” Maj. Gen. John Sattler, director of operations for CENTCOM, the central command in Iraq, said at a press briefing in April.

Still, moms like Naomi Claus of Mexico, Mo., whose son, Stephen D. Smith, is serving in Iraq with the 428th Transportation Company, question budget priorities in Washington if officials are scrambling to get protection into the field and soldiers must fend for themselves with add-on steel.

“If I was the president, everything would have everything possible for safety on it, whether anybody got to ... Mars or not,” she said.

“The government don’t do too good a business a lot of times. I’ve heard them paying $400 to $500 for a hammer, and you can go to Westlakes (hardware store) and get them for $4 or $5. And something that’s this important, they just slack over it.”