Bomb-Proof Vehicles: Why the Delay? (Updated)

Why didn't the Marines act more quickly on a "priority 1 urgent" request for bomb-resistant vehicles? Depends on who you ask.

On Tuesday, when this story first broke, Marine Corps spokesman Bill Johnson-Miles told DANGER ROOM that a lack of manufacturing capability kept the Marines from responding to the plea. "There just wasn't anybody that could meet those requirements," he said. "The industrial base wasn't there."

Today, Major General Dennis Hejlik -- the one who originally asked for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles -- gave USA Today a different explanation.

*Hejlik said Wednesday that the primary threat to Marines in Iraq in early 2005 was from bombs that tore into the sides of vehicles... *

Now, however, IEDs [improvised explosives devices] that rip into the bottom of vehicles are a greater threat, Hejlik said. MRAPs, which feature
V-shaped hulls that disperse the force of an explosion, provide more protection from those IEDs than armored Humvees with flat, lightly armored bottoms.

The Marines determined in June 2005 that Humvees with reinforced armored doors provided more protection for Marines,
Hejlik said. It "was the gold standard that would provide the necessary protection."

Marine Corps Times, Inside Defense, and the Associated Press all have more.

And at least one Presidential candidate is trying to make political hay out of the MRAP delay.

"You cannot tell me that this country is incapable in the next six months of building every single damn one of these vehicles that needs to be built," he tells USA Today.

UPDATE: In the comments, a Marine Corps insider tells us, "This whole thing doesn't make sense... If up-armored HMMWVs really provided better protection against side blasts, and up-armor HMMWV production was in full swing in Feb 05 (which it was), then why would the I MEF Fwd [1st Marine Expeditionary Force] armor experts in Iraq and their CG [commanding general] be asking for MRAPs?"

UPDATE 2: The Worldwide Standard and *Armchair Generalist *throw cold water on Biden's hot, hot MRAP rhetoric.

ALSO:
* Military Dragged Feet on Bomb-Proof Vehicles
* Joint Chiefs Neg "Urgent" Green Power Plea
* Marines: "Help!" Suits: "Zzzzzzzz"
* Marine Corps Denies Drones to Troops
* Which Ride Takes Bomb-Blasts Best?
* Army Junking Future for New Rides?
* Iraq's Tricked-Out Armored Cars
* Shortages for New Armored Vehicles?
* Armored Vehicle Demand Blows Up
* Marines 300, Bombers 0
* 4,100 More Armored Rides