That's because your legislators are demanding it, but Slate, being a venal Democratic Party propaganda vehicle, wouldn't mention that...:
From DefenseTech, alway a good source of info on miltary appropriations: "Well it looks like the first spasm of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle orders has been launched, with the Pentagon inking a – get this - $481 million contract for 1,000 vehicles this week. That's a half a billion dollars for 300 of the 15-ton Cougar Cat-1 (MRAP-MRUV) vehicles and 700 of the 16-ton Cat-2 (MRAP-JEERV) behemoths - all going to Force Protection Industries, Inc. Excuse me for being the skunk at the picnic, but I'm skeptical of the value of these purchases. The MRAP is not a tactical vehicle. It is a specialized armored truck designed primarily for protecting EOD units and their gear from explosions while diffusing bombs or mines. The Marine Corps' top gear buyer, Brig. Gen. Mike Brogan, admitted last month the MRAP was viewed by the Corps as a "boutique vehicle" for certain specialties. They asked for a limited quantity of these vehicles in the 2008 budget and 2007 wartime funding request based on that view. Then what happened? You guessed it, Congress stepped in. After browbeating every service and DoD official they could over the meager number of MRAPs in the budget, Army and Marine officials snapped to and revamped their request to satisfy lawmakers' new infatuation." In full, with links to pertinent data on page: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003456.html Also, an empirical summary of weapons confiscated from Iraqi & insurgents, a veritable weapons cornucopia! "One of the byproducts of conducting security operations in Iraq is you end up with a lot of confiscated weapons, and over the years, quite a respectable collection had been assembled by the various units rotating through the IA mission on our FOB. Naturally we had such staples as the AK-47, AKM, RPK, RPD, and PKM, but we also had some pretty cool specimens as well, like Dragunov SVD sniper rifles, a working DShK, RPGs, even such oldies but goodies as a couple of Mosin-Nagant M1891bolt action rifles and a PPSh-41 sub-machine gun (non-functional unfortunately, otherwise this thing would have been a blast.) The piece d'resistance, though was a brand-new, never been fired, fully functional German MG3. We came about this little gem after detaining a collection of Iraqi oil and pipeline security folk who were conducting illegal shakedown checkpoints out in the hinterlands. In the process of cataloguing their equipment the scribing NCO described the MG3 as some sort of Star Wars blaster rifle, and so it's true nature went undiscovered until I happened to see it propped up against the wall in the supply room, whereupon I discerned the true nature of this fine piece of warmongery. The machinegun itself was in a sorry state. It was bone dry (a blessing as it would turn out), packed with dust, and had never been fired. Since it had never been lubricated (that I could tell), cleaning it up was simply a matter of field stripping it, blowing the majority of the dust out and then giving it a good bath and scrub in solvent. Once clean, dry, lubricated, and reassembled, my MG3 and me went out to the range to convert some linked 7.62 NATO into heat and noise. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to fire an MG3, it is quite possibly the finest, single barreled medium machinegun ever built. Based on the German MG42 of WWII fame, the MG3 is essentially the MG3 rechambered from 7.92mm Mauser to 7.62mm NATO. Its ROF is 1,200 rounds per minute and it is an absolute dream to shoot. Had we simply found the weapon in a raid I would have ditched my M16 and hauled that sucker with me everywhere, but alas and alack, I had to give it back... On 5/11/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
from yesterday's SLATE: > "Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying the Pentagon will be replacing armored Humvees in Iraq with the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, which provides better protection against improvised explosive devices. In a memo last week, Gates said that getting the MRAPs is "the highest priority Department of Defense acquisition program."< Does that mean that Ah-nold and other wannabe gas-guzzlers will soon replace their Hummers with MRAPs or (more likely) "civilianized" MRAPs? -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
