Giant New Bombs Threaten U.S. Super-Trucks

[Guest BillyJack]

Giant New Bombs Threaten U.S. Super-Trucks

 

 

We keep making bigger, better-armored vehicles, to protect our troops from harm. They keep making bigger bombs.

 

This latest turn in this seemingly-endless game is happening in Afghanistan, according to U.S. News and World Report. There, "roadside bombs that once weighed 10 to 20 pounds have morphed into multigallon drums packed with 200 to 500 pounds of explosives, which insurgents roll into culverts with wheelbarrows."

 

The enhanced bombs have in some cases proved effective in destroying the U.S. military's expensive new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles… that featur[e] V-shaped hull to absorb and disperse the impact of roadside bombs.

 

The vehicles were not built, however, to withstand 200-pounds worth of explosives. "They've flipped MRAPs 15 feet in the air sometimes," says one U.S. officer in Afghanistan. "And they break them in half."

 

And the real bitch of it is that the heavy MRAPs, which saved so many lives in Iraq, may be all wrong for the Afghan theater. "During my recent embed with Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, the number one gear complaint was the MRAP," Nathan wrote a few weeks back. "It was too wide for most roads, and the top-heavy vehicles were prone to rollover."