By Emelie Rutherford
As the Marine Corps eyes a shift from Iraq to Afghanistan, its commandant indicated yesterday he does not favor having more of the current iteration of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles there.
Commandant Gen. James Conway, in comments to Pentagon reporters, did not specifically talk about a recent Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement (JUONS) from Central Command (CENTCOM) seeking lighter, more-maneuverable MRAP-like vehicles that are less prone to roll over.
Yet Conway, after telling reporters of his desire to redeploy Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan, described the problems troops have had with large MRAPs on Afghanistan’s underdeveloped roads.
The Marine Corps has ordered all the 2,225 MRAPs it is slated to buy under current plans, and that final number actually dropped by more than 1,400 after Conway last November cited mobility and transportation issues with the large vehicles in Iraq.
The commandant yesterday said those MRAP maneuverability shortcomings he cited last year remain an issue in Afghanistan.
“The problems…that we started to see emerge with the vehicle, when we decided to reduce our buy, are only exacerbated in an Afghan-terrain situation because the Afghan roads are sloped in some cases, unlike roads here in the United States or elsewhere might be,” he said.
He said there are many mountain trails and switchbacks in Afghanistan, and the MRAP is still too heavy in a lot of cases for suspension and axle systems.
“Now, we’ve taken that back to the manufacturers, they’re working on it,” he said. “Unfortunately, the problem is more weight to be able to fix some of these things. You just need a heavier type of chassis in order for these vehicles to stay up.”
Conway said the Marine Corps is seeing more rollovers of MRAPs in Afghansitan than in Iraq, noting the top-heavy vehicles’ high centers of gravity.
“So we’ve got to look at where it can be used and where we probably shouldn’t look at working it in order to, I think, achieve max efficiency from the vehicle,” he said.
He also said “the [MRAP] numbers are such that we’re easily able to satisfy our requirements both in Iraq and in Afghanistan.”
Conway told reporters the number of Marines in Iraq’s Anbar province can be greatly reduced, as U.S officials prepare to hand over control of the western province to Iraq in the coming days.
There are approximately 25,000 Marines in Anbar, and Conway said he would prefer for some of them to be redeployed to Afghanistan.
“Our requirement right now in Iraq is much more about nation-building than it is fighting, and, quite frankly, young Marines join our corps to go fight for their country,” he said. “It’s our view that if there is a stiffer fight going someplace else, in a much more expeditionary environment where the Marine Air-Ground Task Force really seems to have a true and enduring value, then that’s where we need to be.”
The 3,400 Marines sent to Afghanistan earlier this year are due to come home in late November.
The Pentagon plans to place its final MRAP order, for approximately 800 vehicles for the Army, next month, bringing the total number bought for all the services to approximately 15,000 (Defense Daily, Aug. 20).
The JUONS recently submitted in theater for lighter MRAP-like vehicles has not yet been approved. The Army and Marine Corps, though, on Aug. 21 issued a request for information (RFI) to industry seeking input on the more-agile vehicles. A similar industry feeler was released last month to the five companies involved with the current MRAP effort.
Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said last week that “there are more questions than there are answers right now” about this potential follow-on MRAP effort (Defense Daily, Aug. 20).