April 4, 2007:
The U.S. military is facing a
difficult procurement decision. In an effort to reduce casualties from roadside
bombs, the army and marines are asking for money to buy nearly 7,000 bomb
resistant vehicles. There are already some two thousand of these vehicles in
use, mainly by bomb disposal troops, and units operating in areas almost
certain to have lots of roadside bombs. People in bomb resistant vehicles are
much less likely to be killed or injured if they encounter a roadside bomb.
Thus if all the troops who encountered these bombs were instead in a bomb
resistant vehicle, casualties would be about 65 percent less. About half the
casualties in Iraq are from roadside bombs. Thus the army and marines want to
use these vehicles in areas most likely to have bombs, and reduce overall
casualties by about a third.
But this will be expensive. The bomb resistant
vehicles cost about five times more than armored hummers or trucks. Thus the
6,700 bomb resistant vehicles will cost nearly five billion dollars. But these
vehicles would prevent about a hundred troops a month from getting killed or
wounded. The most common of these bomb resistant vehicles are called Cougars.
The Cougar, and larger Buffalo, are more expensive to operate, and less
flexible than the hummer.
The Cougar and Buffalo vehicles use a capsule
design to protect the passengers and key vehicle components mines and roadside
bombs. The bulletproof Cougars and Buffalos are built using the same construction
techniques pioneered by South African firms that have, over the years,
delivered over 14,000 landmine resistant vehicles to the South African armed
forces. The South African technology was imported into the U.S. in 1998, and
has already been used in the design of vehicles used by peacekeepers in the
Balkans.
The 7-12 ton Cougar also has a version called JERRV
(joint explosive ordnance disposal rapid response Vehicles). Basically, JERRV
is a 12 ton truck that is hardened to survive bombs and mines. The Cougar can
get engineers into combat situations where mines, explosives or any kind of
obstacle, have to be cleared. The Cougar
comes in two basic versions. The four wheel one can carry ten passengers, the
six wheel one can carry 16. The trucks cost about $730,000 each, fully
equipped.
About 20 percent of current bomb-resistant wheeled
vehicles are Buffalos. This is a 23 ton vehicle, which is actually a heavily
modified Peterbuilt Mac-10 truck. Costing $740,000 each, they have added armor
protection to keep out machine-gun bullets.
The Buffalo clears mines using a roller that it pushes in front of it,
detonating the mines without taking any damage. The Buffalo is a specialized
route clearing vehicle, while the Cougar is more of a hummer replacement.
However, outside of Iraq, where roadside bombs are
so common, the Cougar would be more expensive to maintain and operate than the
hummer. The Cougar does have more space inside.
Once out of Iraq, the military would not need all these Cougar and
Buffalo vehicles. The intensity of roadside bomb use is unique to Iraq. But
vehicles like the Cougar and Buffalo are popular with many NGOs, and nations
that have problems with rebel movements. So the U.S. could probably sell most
of them, at used vehicle prices, to those buyers.
