geoswan's Journal: mine proof vehicles for troops in Afghanistan...

Canada has lost a couple of dozen soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly through land mines. The original jeep like vehicles Canadians drove were underpowered vehicles modified from Audis. Recently these have been replaced with another German vehicle, the G-Wagon. The G-Wagon's have up-armor kits, and can mount a small turret. But they aren't any better than the up-armored humvees.

From my reading I gather that the underside of the Humvee is too enclosed to ever really be able to provide true anti-land-mine protection. Its undercarraige is flat. More modern vehicles, with superior mineproofing, use techniques like V-shaped hulls, wheels isolated from the undercarraige, areas that blow away, so the expanding gases can be released safely. None of these techniques are practical withing the design of the humvees.

I just learned that the Canadian Forces are going to acquire additional vehicles with better anti-mine protection than that on a humvee. An armored humvee kit costs about $150,000. Presumably that is on top of whatever the original 20-year old humvee is worth.

The Canadian program will supply 50 vehicles for $100 million -- a lot more than the cost of a humvee. But that will include option for another 25 vehicles. And they will all include a remote controlled machine gun turret.

Should the Americans have replaced some or all of their humvees with something similar. How many humvees do they have in Iraq and Afghanistan now? Something like 2-3,000? $3 billion would be a huge expense. But it would be about 1% of the cost of the Iraq war -- so far. This war will probably cost at least $50 billion per year. It could easily last another ten years.

Casualties are ramping up. I read a scary stat. It took the first four years of American involvement for 2,000 GIs to die there.

The number of US casualties from land mines is on its way up too. A year of so ago the estimate was that 50% of casualties was due to land mines and IEDs. Now the estimate stands at 70%.

How many lives would have been saved, How many limbs would have been saved, if the Bush administration had okayed the purchase of better mine protected vehicles? 500 lives? I bet a large percentage of the US electorate would have been prepared to pay $6 billion in order to save 500 lives and 15,000 limbs.

Update: December 16, 2005, 7pm EST A sharp-eyed viewer noticed an incomplete paragraph.

60 Minutes ran a story

[Degrees]

And the culprit isn't necessarily GWB and friends. The general and congresscritter interviewed pointed out that money was allocated, but some members of congress diverted funds to pork projects in their district. Particularly galling was a multi-million dollar upgrade to an airport on the to-be-decommissioned list.

My oldest step-son is in the Army, and I thank God they had a bullet-proof vest for him. When I learned of the mission he was in, I learned how important his duty is.

What is angering is when pol

Word goblins?

[OldMiner]

Second paragraph, you have a sentence that seems to just leave off... Goes "More modern vehicles, with superior mineproofing," and just ends right there. I'm presuming you meant to comment on the V-shaped underbelly of some vehicles, such as those South African anti-mine vehicles you've mentioned before...