OT - IEDs -- technical
 

--Looks like I sorta ended the last thread, or maybe nobody's awake
yet today. Two things to consider:
1) The Humvee is a lame vehicle in that it wasn't designed to
protect against this kind of threat. Applique armor notwithstanding it's
still a lame solution. There are *much* better vehicles for sale but the US
seems to want to buy "domestic" and that's what's killing people.
2) As the British found in Northern Ireland, once your troops are
bottled up in an IED-proof vehicle they become ineffective; i.e. too
dangerous to leave the vehicle, you might as well not be there, or be there
in a tank and accept the fact that you're going to have to destroy the
neighborhood to whack the bad guys. The "solution" is to not be there, IMO.
Oh, sure, you could switch to a bazillion remote sensing platforms, but
that's an imperfect fit with the mission. As a pal of mine who's in the
profession says: the landmine *is* the "hack"..

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Better an early adapter
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : than an early adopter..
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

OT - IEDs -- technical
 

steamer wrote:

--Looks like I sorta ended the last thread, or maybe nobody's awake
yet today. Two things to consider:
1) The Humvee is a lame vehicle in that it wasn't designed to
protect against this kind of threat. Applique armor notwithstanding it's
still a lame solution. There are *much* better vehicles for sale but the
US seems to want to buy "domestic" and that's what's killing people.

The Humvee is the replacement for the jeep. It was never intended to be an
AFV anymore than a jeep was intended to be an AFV.

Now, what are these "*much* better vehicles" that serve the same function as
a jeep? Or are you saying that there is no place in the miltary for a
jeep?

2) As the British found in Northern Ireland, once your troops are
bottled up in an IED-proof vehicle they become ineffective; i.e. too
dangerous to leave the vehicle, you might as well not be there, or be
there in a tank and accept the fact that you're going to have to destroy
the neighborhood to whack the bad guys.

"Whacking the bad guys" only works once you've found the bad guys. And once
you've found them if you're willing to destroy the neighborhood you may as
well just call in an air strike. If you've found enough of them that you
can't get out of the vehicle because of the intensity of fire then you've
accomplished your mission of finding them.

Further, a tank is not an "IED-proof vehicle", it just needs a bigger or
more cleverly applied IED.

The "solution" is to not be there,
IMO. Oh, sure, you could switch to a bazillion remote sensing platforms,
but that's an imperfect fit with the mission. As a pal of mine who's in
the profession says: the landmine *is* the "hack".

The "hack" for _what_?

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)