

New composite Humvees shed 900 pounds of weight








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RE: Woo hoo!
By TomZ on 9/21/2007 10:49:17 AM , Rating: 6
I don't think that's funny. People being killed isn't comedy.

RE: Woo hoo!
By marsbound2024 on 9/21/07, Rating: 0
RE: Woo hoo!
By CascadingDarkness on 9/21/2007 6:25:22 PM , Rating: 2
I don't get it. The only way any of your mockery makes sense is if your bashing the Humvee in general, meaning no matter how they improve the vechicle it will still be a death trap (which is a pretty big leap based on your short comments).

I for one cheer them trying to protect troops. Hopefully it won't be too costly as there seems to be a gray line cut off somewhere between cost, and protecting service peoples lives.

RE: Woo hoo!
By marsbound2024 on 9/22/2007 2:12:20 PM , Rating: 1
Ok so I'm not entirely sure how you people don't get it, but I'll walk you through it. The Humvee was not designed for urban warfare. It does this minimally well at best. However, with IEDs an everyday thing, I think the US Army really has not even made a serious attempt at protecting our troops from this relatively new, common-place threat. There certainly needed to be either a newly designed urban vehicle or a total overhaul of our current lightly-armored vehicles so that IEDs would not be so much of a problem.

Besides, it doesn't matter so much about cost. Seriously, this war has already cost us hundreds of billions of dollars, so I doubt a few more million will make a difference. But according to you, the cost is a bigger issue and thus the Humvee is all you would go for. Doesn't seem like you want to protect the troops in my opinion.

Of course the best scenario would be to pull out by Spring of 2008 whether the Iraqis were ready or not. Having a deadline would discourage IED attacks in my opinion because all we have to do is say "If IED attacks continue, then we will deem it necessary to stay as Iraq is not stable enough." Now of course there will still be some IEDs, but hopefully not as many. Also, having a deadline means that the Iraqis could get their butt in gear without having to depend on us so much.

So in conclusion, the Humvee is a wonderful vehicle, but not designed for urban scenarios. Either it needs a complete overhaul or a new vehicle is necessary in these situations. This is a step, but a bit disappointing to me, nonetheless. Composites are nice, but I feel that the Army is trying to take the cheap route. Not a good idea in my mind.


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