U.S. troops in Afghanistan to get more bomb protection
The hulking vehicles, known as MRAPs, protect U.S. personnel from the powerful blasts of roadside bombs, the No. 1 cause of combat deaths in injuries in Iraq. The improvised explosive devices are a growing threat in Afghanistan where 36,000 American troops are battling militant groups and training Afghan forces.
In violence Thursday, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a raid on a militant cell in western Afghanistan, killing 15 insurgents while freeing 15 hostages, officials said.
NATO, meanwhile, said its troops in the south have killed a senior Taliban commander, while the U.S.-led coalition reported its forces along with Afghan security forces killed "several militants" in the same region.
MRAPs come in various sizes. One model, fully loaded, can weigh as much as 40 tons. Due to Afghanistan's mountainous terrain and unstable roads, defense officials have opted for the lightest and most maneuverable version, called the RG-31.
The RG-31 is produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada with a BAE Systems division in South Africa.
"It's the lightest. It has the tightest turning radius. That is the one that the commanders in Afghanistan want," said Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, the Marine Corps officer who runs the MRAP program, in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
General Dynamics received a $552 million order for the vehicles, the Pentagon announced Thursday. The work will be done in South Africa, Lansing, Mich., and Anniston, Ala. All the trucks are to be completed by the end of the year.
Faced with an increasingly sophisticated insurgency, particularly along Afghanistan's rugged border with Pakistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that sending more U.S. troops would help quell the increasing violence.
"I think that we are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later," Gates told reporters. But, he added, no final decisions or recommendations have been made.
While the RG-31 is smaller, Brogan said that does not mean troops are less safe than they would be in much larger MRAPs, such as the Cougar made by Force Protection of Ladson, S.C., or the Caiman made by BAE Systems in Sealy, Texas. Regardless of size, all MRAPs have a raised chassis and a V-shaped hull that pushes an underbelly explosion out and away from the crew inside. Heavy steel doors and 1 inch-thick windows complete the package.
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