By Emelie Rutherford
The Army has been working on engineering changes to Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP) to address issues troops have encountered–including rollovers, power-line snags, and jammed doors–a materiel-readiness official said.
Army Materiel Command (AMC) leader Gen. Benjamin Griffin, talking to reporters at the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA) conference in Washington Wednesday, acknowledged challenges personnel have had maneuvering the large MRAPs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We worry about rollovers, we worry about fire, we worry about wires [on power lines that MRAPs hit], all those things,” Griffin said, noting adding weight to MRAPs to protect passengers from increasingly dangerous explosives has had unintended consequences.
“They’re heavy, and there’s some challenges there with respect to the maneuverability. So you try to engineer in as much [of a solution] as you can….The challenge for us is how quickly can we be adaptive to the problems and can we find the problems.”
Officials involved with the multi-service MRAP program have responded to problems encountered with the vehicles–such as rolling into waterways after crushing roads not strong enough to hold them–by requesting the truck builders make lighter variants for the most recent orders. The Army and Marine Corps also are considering suggestions from industry for a potential “MRAP Lite” effort to build more maneuverable versions of the vehicles (Defense Daily, Oct. 9).
Griffin, the AMC commander, cited said several efforts to improve MRAPs already ordered.
“We’re in the process right now of shipping additional gunner’s restraint systems to theater,” he said, adding such a protecting setup has been approved for the different MRAP variants. The military used a similar process to outfit Humvees with gunner’s restraint systems, he said.
Defense officials also are working on a “rollover trainer,” or a controlled device that simulates a vehicle rollover for training purposes, for MRAPs that is like one that exists for Humvees, Griffin said.
“It’s under development; we’ll have the rollover trainer,” he said.
Because MRAPs with antennas can be taller than power lines in theater, Griffin said defense officials have “looked at how to help with respect to the antennas and wires, steps that could be taken to prevent contact.”
“You can devise things…so that in certain areas…(an) antenna will be suppressed,” Griffin said. On the exposition floor at the AUSA gathering, AMC displayed a pivoting device with a sensor that can retract antennas atop MRAPs when power lines are detected.
Griffin also noted work to make MRAP doors that are easier to open, so troops aren’t trapped after events like rolling over into water. Defense officials also are looking at fire-suppression systems for MRAPs, he said.
“A lot of this stuff we get from soldiers in the field who come back to us,” Griffin said. “That’s why…the network’s so critical to us, the feedback.”
When reports of problems like rollovers come in, he said, “we put our engineers on it, working hand in hand with the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).”
On the AUSA exposition floor armored-vehicle builders touted modifications they have made to MRAPs and MRAP-like vehicles in order to address the Pentagon’s desire for lighter mine-resistant trucks.
For example, Navistar Defense displayed its MaxxPro Dash. The Pentagon ordered more than 800 of this MRAP last month–during the final planned order round for the current program–after requesting lighter and more-maneuverable versions of the vehicles from industry. Navistar Defense’s response to the Army and Marine Corps’ recent industry survey for “MRAP Lite” suggests a very similar vehicle.
To make the MaxxPro Dash lighter than previous MRAPs–while still providing protection from side-launched explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), a feature the very first MRAPs lacked–the vehicle was shortened in height and length, and a lighter engine was used, company officials said.
Textron [TXT], a company phased out of the multi-contractor MRAP program early on, has submitted two MRAP Lite suggestions, in response to the Army/Marine Corps survey.
One of Textron’s MRAP Lite submittals is a modification of the proposal it submitted–with partners Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI]–for the Army and Marine Corps’ future Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).
And Textron’s other suggestion is for a vehicle quite similar to its developmental Mobile Survivable Vehicle, company officials said at AUSA.
Other companies that responded to the Army/Marine Corps “MRAP Lite” request for information (RFI) include: Force Protection [FRPT], BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin [LMT], General Dynamics [GD], and Oshkosh Truck [OSK]. Sources said more than two dozen responses were submitted to the RFI by the mid-September deadline.