MRAP & JLTV vs. Reality & the Need for Next Gen Armor Pt. II
In my previous post, when I introduced the inestimable David Woroner, I mentioned he was a former trigger-puller turned ballistics guy. I may not have mentioned he's an inventor-slash-engineer. That's my description by the way, not his. Anyway, to preempt the questions, I wanted to reassure you he does know whereof he speaks. He's a patent-holder, and, frankly, something of a visionary in protective technologies. He's a member of assorted big-brain organizations that work on things I won't ever understand, which is cool but sometimes makes wish he'd speak English.
Anyway, I'd like to reiterate a couple of things. I've gotten a couple of e-mails about how MRAPs save lives, so what's his problem? They are completely missing the damned point! Of course they're saving lives! The point though is that we're investing in a vehicle that'll potentially be carrying our boys and girls for decades to come, so we have to design it correctly! We hafta avoid a situation like the one that necessitated hillbilly armor and up-armor kits. We need a vehicle that stands up to IEDs like the MRAP does and can cross difficult terrain and turn around in the middle of some third world alley. That's what he's talking about! So, two things:
1. Common sense is an uncommon virtue. The military has a long history of doing things right, but just as long a history of doing them wrong at the highest levels. They sent entire divisions into the Hurtgen Forest. They ignored warnings the Chinese were going to cross the Yalu. They believe airbases can be defended largely from within the wire. They promote guys like Gen. Trebon and Col. Rudesheim. They believe reflective safety belts belong in a war zone and that paperwork generated is a measure of excellence. This kind of ineptitude cannot be a part of the JLTV or any other new vehicle.
2. The entire contracting system is corrupt and broken. That's not to say there aren't honest, patriotic men and women doing contract work building our equipment and serving overseas. But when dollars override training, quality and ultimately lives, there's a problem. The JLTVs and future MRAPs can't be designed and built with more concern for lobbyists and corporate profit margins than the blood of Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coasties! Use what General Metz said as a lens to view these million dollar contracts to build vehicles that may be carrying your kids, nieces and nephews.
Okay, I'm off my soapbox. On to the expert who has been waiting patiently for me to finish up.
MRAP & JLTV vs. Reality & the Need for Next Gen Armor Pt. II
David Woroner, Copyright David Woroner and BreachBangClear.com
I was writing before about next-gen armor and why it's needed. I don't know how many people (including you reading this) understand the true nature of detonation and how it affects personnel, but an explanation might be in order. I've studied the subject endlessly over the last ten years with but one goal in mind—the design of truly effective next-gen armor. Armor that will A) defeat the initial shock wave (this is what removes limbs and does the ripping, or what I call shearing) and B) mitigate the immediate overpressure. After the initial shock wave of detonation, overpressure injures or kills the surviving troopers.
Understand our basic physiology. We are made of air spaces, such as lungs, stomach and intestines. Most of our body is comprised of liquids and fluids. You can be behind the best armor extant in the world and it is still going to allow the overpressure right through it. All of these air spaces and fluids are compressed by overpressure immensely. Then, immediately following the overpressure comes a large underpressure.
You can demonstrate this to yourself by lighting a match. Strike the match and watch the event unfold. First you will get the flare-up (shockwave), then a moment of high heat, then suddenly you will see it recede. It does this as it requires more air.
In a nutshell, our bodies go through the initial ?smack', then we get the heck squeezed out of us as if were diving down on an underwater rocket to about 2,000 FSW (Feet Salt Water). Then, to make it as bad as possible, the underpressure tears at us to expand. So, descend at rocket speed to a depth of 2,000 feet, then take about an 18 second ride to the surface.
Unpleasant, to say the least. Hopefully this will describe the workings of a detonation upon personnel. Needless to say, our bodies are very, very unhappy after an event like this. It also affects the brain, as it is surrounded by liquid. This is another big cause of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). Even if the trooper survives the detonation without a visible wound, it has still had a tremendous effect on the brain.
My open proposals to any JLTV maker is to take a look at the armor SCI has developed. It is precisely the kind of next-gen armor that must be employed on the JLTVs to make them operationally effective without the high casualty rates we are continuing to suffer.
Okay, commercial break over; and let me just make a point of saying that even if SCI armor isn't chosen, something similar to it must be used.
Tires vs. Tread, how will they move? This would seem to be a no-brainer, but I have to add it in. Instead of tires (and one must wonder if they considered duallies for the MRAP, since they were so determined to use tires), why don't we incorporate some version of tread? Of course treads can be blown off in action as easily as tires, but when made of the right materials, they stand a much better chance of driving away from an ambush. They'll bog down far less frequently, and they can turn and maneuver far more effectively in urban terrain than anything with wheels. Why do we have to ignore (at worst) or keep relearning (at best) these old lessons, when this is done at the cost of our troops?
Okay, back to weight issues and the physics gobbledegook. The powers that be continue to just "paste on" vehicle modifications after the fact, to remedy or mitigate the bloody lessons that should have been identified and addressed in the first place. After the fact=dead Americans in the meantime. You should build a new vehicle with the most intelligent techniques available to defeat the threats you've made an effort to anticipate. You don't just go pasting on another 8,000 kilos (roughly 18,000 pounds) of metals and call it good!
Do you recall the ongoing trials and tribulations of the Stryker, its size and weight and performance problems? Recall perhaps the "hillbilly" or "Mad Max" armor so prevalent during the early years of the war, used until up-armored humvees and grilled M113s (again, a reaction to lessons that should have been heeded before construction) were deployed? Heard PSC and PMC operators talking about buying Kevlar blankets to put on the floor of their vehicles? Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines still stacking sandbags and even cases of MREs on the floors of theirs?
I'm sure you remember your father telling you, "Do it right the first time." He was right, wasn't he?
Now, as I've said, the MRAP has saved lives, and that's outstanding. At a million dollars a pop, though, and carrying the weight of an anchor needed to stop a cruise ship, it just doesn't make sense for this to be a long term solution. I envision a bunch of these things stuck in the mud of some faraway, swampy country, or unable to perform even an 8 or 10 point turn in some narrow street with buildings high above on either side and I shudder. That's a frightening thought.
The keys to armor in the 21ST century are in progression. Contact, light absorbency, deflection, reaction and finally metallurgical and ceramic skin. I don't think any of us would like to wear a reactive charge instead of soft body armor or the "phone book thick" panels of now older BC4 (Boron Carbide). If you've warn the absolute best personal body armor available, you know it's like donning a suit of medieval jousting armor.
I think we, as citizens of the United States of America, are smarter than this. I'm just waiting to see that thought borne out.
Ultimately where do I come out? Build the JLTV correctly from the git-go, then sell the MRAPs to third parties that might become threats themselves. We'd recoup our money and if we wind up facing those third parties in combat we can just wet down the land. Water's always been a good weapon. Maybe even napalm mud...
Okay, sarcasm aside, I'm worried politics are going to play a part in all this. Even if it's just a politician getting a "campaign contribution" from someone vying for a defense contract. I don't like politics in war. I hate it when casualties are referred to as 'politically untenable', as though that's the thing to be concerned with! People say war is just the natural continuation of politics, but they just don't get it. It ain't the same by any stretch of the imagination. Ask anyone that's actually been in one. It's just another one of those philosophical maunderings that pogues at universities like to throw around. Then again, what do I know?
Well, I tell you what I do know. I know I get the picture. Most armor designers and manufacturers haven't had their asses blown up, shot off or left hanging, so I'm at least by that measure of experience way ahead of them on the power curve. Maybe they don't know that depth and weight does not equal protection. Maybe the don't care.
Maybe I'm doing them a disservice, but judging from what I've seen in decades of professional soldiering, protective technology research and paying attention I doubt it!
More, thicker, heavier armor is NOT the end game. Harder, lighter (and cheaper) armor can go on the outside of the vehicle with sensor systems and Flash Detection Recognition in place to deal with the wave shear over and under, and ultimately to slow down the EFPs enough to defeat them.
Active Protective Systems like Quick Kill and Trophy can't be measured against just an RPG (which has a slow FPS on its way in). They have to be built to respond to something moving in the high nanosecond, low microsecond range. Something that will slow down or mitigate an EFP sufficiently that the next-gen armor behind it can stop it.
The JLTV can be a good program, properly developed and implemented. We owe it to the men and women (often no more than boys and girls) who'll be on the sharp end of the lessons I've discussed to take them to heart.
We have got to do it right the very first time.
About the author: David Woroner is the CEO of Survival Consultants International. He is prior military, with a plethora of specialty qualifications (airborne, armorer, master diver, EOD et al. A frequent contributor to Defense Tech, he is a member of ASIS, APN, the Hypervelocity Impact Society and many similar organizations. It is largely his experiences in various hot spots as a soldier and a PSC operator that spur his passion for developing and refining protective technologies. He can be contacted via the SCI website.
I told you guys we'd be having a damned interesting, even provocative, guest blog coming up. A day late Happy Birthday to you Devil Dogs and happy Veteran's Day to all of you that have served over the years in order to keep this country a place where anyone can be a pundit without fear.
Swingin' Dick Out!
