Military's new 'MRAP' easy to operate

By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer

LADSON, S.C. - I asked my guide in the back seat where to park as I swung my 19-ton "MRAP" by the plant where the massive military trucks are made. "Anywhere you want," said Mike Aldrich, a vice president at Force Protection Inc., a company that builds the vehicles.

That's right. I own the road.

The truck is called a Cougar. The initials MRAP — pronounced M-Rap — stand for a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle. The military is buying them by the thousands to guard troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from deadly roadside bombs.

These hulking machines rely on their heft and creative design to bull their way through blasts that cripple or destroy lesser vehicles.

What's it like to drive?

Given the chance and a bit of coaching, I found the Cougar easy to operate. It has an automatic, push-button transmission. The steering wheel tilts to whatever angle you prefer. Confined to Force Protection's property, I didn't go faster than 20 miles per hour. But the Cougar accelerates quickly and handles well. They say it will do 65 mph.

You sit up high, but there isn't much of a view. The emphasis on protection limits the number of windows, which are more than an inch thick and not very big.

You wouldn't want to parallel park one of these.

Oh, and I had a little trouble finding the turn signal.

To fire the engine up, you push in a starter switch on the left. A deep, diesel rumble takes over. With your foot on the brake, you push in a yellow button near your right knee. Shift into drive and you're moving. To stop, step on the brake, put it in neutral. Then you pull out the yellow button. A loud popping sound and a hiss. The air brake has been set.

That last step is key. Forget to take it and you may lose your vehicle.

My lone concern while driving the desert-brown Cougar around this sprawling facility outside Charleston was the possibility of running into another one. The place is crawling with them. Force Protection is building more than 300 MRAPs each month to meet the Pentagon's demands.

And Force Protection is not alone. Other defense contractors, including BAE Systems in York, Pa., and Navistar International in Warrenville, Ill., are cranking out their own models that vary in weight and appearance. With $21 billion provided by Congress, the Defense Department already has ordered nearly 12,000 MRAPs from these companies. About 1,500 are in use. More are shipped each week to combat zones.

These trucks dwarf Humvees, the more nimble, less sturdy vehicles that have become the modern-day Jeep. But the bombs made by insurgents found the Humvee's Achilles' heel. Even when armor plating was added, troops inside were still being maimed and killed.

Last May, a month during which 90 Americans died because of improvised explosive devices, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared the purchase of MRAPs to be the military's top acquisition priority. That was two years after commanders in Iraq first requested the heavy trucks.

The vehicles aren't cheap. A standard Cougar costs about $450,000 compared with $150,000 for a new armored Humvee. Depending on their size and how the military wants them equipped, other MRAP models can cost as much as $1 million each.

The Cougar and a much larger Force Protection-built MRAP called the Buffalo have been attacked more than 3,000 times. There have been only three recorded American fatalities. In one case, a service member who was not wearing his seat belt was killed when the bomb exploded near the vehicle, according to Aldrich.

"It's like the unsinkable ship," he said. "There's no military vehicle in the world that's perfect. But we've got one that's 3,000 to three."

The vehicle begins as a dark, V-shaped hull made strong enough to withstand the impact of an IED, the signature weapon of war in the 21st century. The work is done in a cavernous facility where General Electric once manufactured turbine engines. Now, thick planes of glass, massive truck axles, and sheets of specially made steel are scattered about, all waiting to be molded into lifesaving personnel carriers.

The sparks fly as workers bend, weld and grind away. The company has been criticized by lawmakers on Capitol Hill for not automating more of its hull-shaping operation, but Aldrich defends the hands-on approach. Hulls fashioned by machines often have to be rewelded by humans, he says.

Once the hull is finished, it moves along a slow-moving assembly line where hundreds of parts are attached. It takes as long as 45 days to complete a Cougar. The most visible components are the 330-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine and the 47-inch high Michelin tires. Wiring is snaked throughout the frame for radios and GPS receivers. Race-car quality bucket seats with harness safety belts are installed to keep passengers from being thrown around.

A Cougar can hold six people.

The vehicle sits about 36 inches off the ground, and that's important. A Humvee, which has a flat bottom and rides much lower, traps the blast and shoves it up toward the crew. The MRAP's elevated geometry pushes the explosion out and away.

"It doesn't matter how good your material is or anything else, our rule of thumb around here is, 'The first three feet belongs to the blast,'" Aldrich said. "So you've got to give it this funny car look and jack it up high off the ground."

MRAPs offer more protection than Humvees, but it's difficult to know just much safer they are because of inconsistencies in the Defense Department's public casualty reports.

At least 487 U.S. troops died in Iraq last year from IEDs, roadside bombs, cars bombs and other explosives. However, the number of those troops who were riding in Humvees when killed is not clear. The Defense Department lists Humvees in at least 20 cases, but in more than 240 other fatalities involving bomb attacks, the vehicle type is not specified.

While many of the automotive components used in an MRAP are oversized, they're commercially available in large quantities. When a bomb damages a vehicle's exterior, the repairs can be done in about three days, Aldrich said.

As beefy as it is, the Cougar can hit 65 at full speed. In Iraq, where temperatures run high, drivers don't go more than 55 to avoid overheating the tires.

The truck gets about six miles to the gallon. The low mileage has raised concerns that the gas-guzzling trucks will require a large fleet of lighter refueling vehicles to follow along. That could put more rather than fewer troops at risk, suggested an October study from a Washington think tank.

The MRAP's size and weight also makes it difficult to chase the enemy down narrow roads, over unstable bridges, or across rough terrain. Citing those reasons, along with the improved security environment in western Iraq, the Marine Corps will buy just 2,300 of the vehicles instead of the 3,700 it initially planned on. The Army still wants 10,000 MRAPs, but like the Marine Corps plans to keep its more mobile Humvees

Aldrich, a former Army officer and a 1972 West Point graduate, joined Force Protection in 2003 after a long career in government and corporate sales. The company had its first vehicle loss four months after he started. One of the Buffalos, a 40-ton behemoth used for clearing mines, had been lost in Afghanistan.

Not to a roadside bomb. The Buffalo was being used by troops who hadn't been properly trained to operate it. One night while conducting a routine security sweep, the crew got out of the vehicle. The driver didn't pull out the yellow button and set the air brake. The 80,000-pound truck rolled into a lake.

They were able to tow it out, but more than $50,000 in damage had been done.

"So the first time anybody drives, I say, 'Pull out that yellow button. You hear that big pop? That tells you can get out of the vehicle. If you don't hear that pop, you don't get out of the vehicle,'" Aldrich said.

Words to live by.