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U.S. Army Shuns Anti-RPG System
As of September 2006, 170 American lives have been lost to RPGs in the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. RAFAEL, the Israeli Armament development authority, has been testing a system to defend against such attacks, and have found it to be "well above 90%" effective in killing RPGs. This system, dubbed TROPHY, is an Active Protection System that utilizes small buckshot to disintegrate an incoming rocket. The U.S. Army tested the system and found it to effective nearly 98.5% of the time, and the Office of Force Transformation agreed to purchase several at a cost of around $400,000 per unit for battlefield trials this year.
Yet according to an NBC News report, the U.S. Army has rejected the system. One may ask why, but it seems the answer may be simple: The Army has a $70 million contract with Raytheon to develop a similar system (part of the Army’s massive modernization program dubbed Future Combat System), which won’t be ready until at least 2011. NBC News asked pointed questions, but even Raytheon refused comment on whether that timetable is even accurate. NBC even has documents purporting to show that an Army General threatened a Navy engineer for recommending the TROPHY system.
The Israeli system is being marketed by General Dynamics, a U.S. company, and could even be doing the assembly work here in the U.S. Should the lives of our troops be traded for political favors to large contractors such as Raytheon?
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"Military-industrial complex" > all? by Xtremegene
This sort of thing really makes me wonder. Of course, if I were out on the front lines and being shot at, this would also make me really pissed off. I’m not, though, so I’ll just settle on being dumbfounded.
This brings one question up in my mind: once a contract to develop weapons systems is awarded, is it periodically (yearly?) reviewed to make sure all is well and there aren’t 1000% cost overruns? I’m hoping and guessing so…
FCS by milhous
It is important to note that FCS is the term used for the entire program of Future Combat Systems Brigades that the Army has already started fielding at Ft Bliss, TX. The first FCS is the EBCT of 1st Armored Division. They should be fully manned by this summer and ready to start testing any and all systems the Army sends their way.
I’d like to personally note that I don’t consider NBC to be "fair and balanced" but that is just my personal opinion.
Beware the Military-Industrial Complex by Anonymous
Yet another example of war for profit. Clearly the Department of Defense isn’t interested in winning as much as they are in lining people’s pockets. War is big business and Bush and Cheney know this better than most. Haliburton, Raytheon, they’re all getting fat off this war. You can even see now that if the war in Iraq winds down, teh fat cats are looking to start one up with Iran just to keep their profits high.
Vietnamese Army Solution by VnutZ
A friend of mine was a child soldier in the Vietnamese army while they were fighting the Cambodians. He recalls there patrol bases were protected from RPG attacks using nothing more than a layer or two of chain link, wire fence. Why? The RPGs literally got stuck in the links. They would either explode harmlessly out of kill range or remain in the fence inert. He recalled waking up in the mornings to find numerous RPGs just sticking out of the wire that were not there the night before.
Send The General Into Battle by Anonymous
The General, who will probably serve as a CEO for Raytheon when he retires, needs to go into battle in Iraq. The Representatives and Congressmen who allow this to happen should also go into battle in Iraq. Talking with US Veterans from Iraq – this behaviour is typical for commanders. Why do you think our solders have their family members buy them flack jackets their government won’t supply and weld their own homemade armour on their HUMVEES. These types of commanders, contractors, and congressmen need to be jailed! Probably Raytheon will take the government contract money and outsource the manufacturing to India or China, like other corporations do. Bottom line – the commanders, contractors, and congress don’t give a damn about our soldiers, just the money and their connections. People who behaved like this in the past – endangering the lives of our soldiers were once called collaborators and traitors!