Seapower - March 2009

U.S. MARINE CORPS

Oshkosh Defense’s entry in the M-ATV competition will be a variant of its armored Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) vehicle. Here, Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan A. Bryant provides security from the gun turret of an MTVR while Sgt. Mathew D. Angle searches for mines and improvised explosive devices north of Hit, Iraq, in February 2007.

NAVISTAR DEFENSE

Navistar Defense already is supplying its MaxxPro Dash vehicles to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. For the Army and Marine Corps M-ATV contract for an initial 2,080 vehicles, the company will compete with a modified version of the vehicle.

The Marines have been using a variant of the much-revered MRAP in Afghanistan, but found it is hard to drive and navigate in the mountainous terrain that lacks developed infrastructure.

The MRAP, a behemoth with a V-shaped hull, has been saving lives in Iraq, where roadside bombs had been claiming a disproportionate number of casualties. But Iraq actually has a rather well developed road system, Hansen said, which allows the large protective vehicles to maneuver properly.

Even there, however, MRAPs have proved too heavy for some roadways and bridges, and have faced additional difficulties, such as rollovers, in less-developed rural areas.

In Afghanistan, MRAPs can be particularly unwieldy, Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, told reporters at a Defense Writers’ Group in Washington earlier this year. The Marines have been using what they call the Category I MRAP in Afghanistan, a smaller and lighter version designed for urban operations.

“If you ride in one [MRAP], it kind of creeps and groans when you start going on uneven terrain,” Conway said. “The vehicle does not operate as well off-road as we would like.”

“I think the terrain is extraordinarily demanding there [in Afghanistan] and it’s a challenge each and every day to operate in those vehicles,” Maj. Gen. Robert Lennox, the assistant deputy Army chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee last month.

Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, head of Marine Corps’ Systems Command, told lawmakers at the same hearing Feb. 4 that a total of 94 MRAP accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in rollovers. Two-thirds of those were directly related to the weight of the vehicle and the rest were the result of maneuvering to avoid a perceived roadside bomb, a pothole or an accident, he said.

Despite the fact, for example, that the rear wheels get caught in the craggy roads and vehicles can roll over, the current MRAPs are still state of the art and saving lives, said Lennox.

Brogan stressed that the technology to build the M-ATV exists today, as does the know-how at several companies vying for the lucrative business the M-ATV represents. The companies say they can fulfill the requirement of an MRAP-like survivability with a Humvee-like mobility and a tighter turning radius.