Corps spending millions to up-armor Cougars

[unhappycamper]

Corps spending millions to up-armor Cougars
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Dec 28, 2008 10:35:59 EST

Responding to the continued threat posed by armor-melting explosively formed penetrators, the Corps will add thousands of pounds of scalable bolt-on plates to some Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

Marine Corps Systems Command has purchased $30 million in new add-on armor kits from Force Protection Inc., the Ladson, S.C.,-based company announced Dec. 17. It will pay for kits to be used on 196 Cougar MRAPs, which the company manufactures, said Damon Walsh, a vice president at Force Protection.

“This is one step toward enabling commanders to dial the threat-protection level up or down to meet operational requirements,” Walsh said. “Ultimately, as get smaller, the idea is that you could still use it on different platforms.”

The Corps asked for 3,600 MRAPs in 2006 to eventually replace Humvees in the fleet, but it cut the order to about 2,200 last year amid concerns about mobility and how many vehicles were needed. In November, the Defense Department began fielding the first wave of smaller MRAPs in Afghanistan.

The Corps bought kits for 192 six-wheel Category 2 Cougars and four, four-wheel Category 1 Cougars, Walsh said. He estimated the armor will add about 5,000 pounds to a Category 2 vehicle and 3,500 pounds to a Category 1 vehicle.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/12/marine_mraparmor_122708w/%2e

[cabluedem]

1. IOW, The MRAP is _another_ US Mil-Spec boondoggle. Milions more to upgrade these POS..

vehicles, while our troops should be back home in the first place. No disrespect to the troops it will protect, of course.