Army News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Army Times

Gates: MRAPs reduce troop deaths, injuries

WASHINGTON — Few troops have been killed or wounded by roadside bomb attacks in Iraq while riding in the Pentagon’s new armored vehicles, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, evidence of the value of the vehicles that he made the military’s top priority.

In about 150 attacks, 6 percent of U.S. troops have been injured or killed while in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, including six deaths, Pentagon records show. Humvees, the military’s main vehicle, have had a 22 percent casualty rate. Even attacks on Abrams tanks are more than twice as likely to produce casualties than attacks on MRAPs.

“The reaction of the troops in the field has been extraordinary,” Gates said. “They are considered the vehicle of choice. I had a wounded warrior who was here for a lunch a couple of weeks ago who was going around telling anybody who looked like they were in a position of authority that an MRAP had saved his life.”

Gates made his comments Friday, exactly a year after he announced that he was making MRAPs his top priority. Since then, more than 14,000 vehicles have been ordered. There are 4,200 in Iraq, and 1,200 more in Kuwait waiting to be delivered. Troops in Afghanistan have 320 MRAPs. The Pentagon may order a few thousand more of the trucks, which cost about $1 million each, he said.

Gates credited Congress for giving the Pentagon $22 billion for the MRAP program. He also praised the manufacturers for delivering thousands of the vehicles to Iraq in less than a year. The truck’s raised chassis and V-shaped hull deflect the force of bombs buried in roads, the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Dakota Wood, who co-authored a report on MRAPs for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said troops “can become enamored of the armored cocoon” of the vehicle and be less apt to interact with Iraqis. That can limit U.S. forces’ ability to gather intelligence on insurgents from local residents.

Such criticism is a misunderstanding of how the vehicles are used in Iraq, Gates said.

“The soldiers and the Marines are still out in the villages, they are still out patrolling on foot,” he said. “The MRAPs get them to where they begin their mission more safely.”

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who pushed for billions in funding for MRAPs, said the Pentagon wasted time and lives by not acting sooner.

“These vehicles are proven lifesavers and we needed to get them to Iraq as quickly as possible,” he said.