I read today, "Army and Marine Corps officials knew nearly a decade before the invasion of Iraq that its workhorse Humvee vehicle, was a “deathtrap” even with armor added to protect it against roadside bombs, according to an inspector general’s report". Plus, "The Pentagon didn’t field significant numbers of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles until 2007, more than three years after roadside bombings began to escalate in the Iraq war."
As a result, just as Soldiers and Marines have always done to "make it work", numerous field expedient solutions were found to provide whatever vehicle protection they could. I remember we did essentially the same thing during the Vietnam War, so the above "breaking news" did not surprise me that much. What disappoints me, however, is how long it still takes to get the right equipment into the hands of people doing the fighting. There have been some successes, but in my view way more failures.
