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Earlier today I said bringing MRAPs home from Afg and giving them away to local cops for free was an "atrocity." I'm going to try to explain why a little better (thread). https://twitter.com/JBaker_WTOV/status/1273655533510242308?s=19
The MRAP is what it says it is: mine-resistant, able to prevent fatal injuries from a mine-sized explosion underneath. MRAPs can be flipped over, but still offer a high chance of survival. It does this through two characteristics: the height off ground and vee-shaped hull to ...
...mitigate explosive force, plus the hermetically sealed crew compartment, to limit the effects of pressure. While the sides are bullet-resistant, MRAPs are not particularly well armored compared to other armored personnel carriers. The point is to keep the blast from pulping...
...the occupants.
These characteristics introduce limitations. The first is that mounting and dismounting is very difficult compared to almost any other vehicle. Look at the video. Note how high the crew compartment is to get that mine-resistant spacing. Basically you use a ...
These characteristics introduce limitations. The first is that mounting and dismounting is very difficult compared to almost any other vehicle. Look at the video. Note how high the crew compartment is to get that mine-resistant spacing. Basically you use a ...
...ladder to get in and out. The back hatch is small, because it needs to be sealable, like an airlock. The windows don't open at all. Some types can't open the crew compartment at all from the inside. You're basically in a submarine relative to the world around you when mounted.
This in turn has a couple effects. Every mount/dismount is a deliberate, careful effort. You can't just stop and get out anywhere.
Because of this, it's not a vehicle designed to take soldiers into a battle. At the halt or moving slow, you are dependent on dismounts around you.
Because of this, it's not a vehicle designed to take soldiers into a battle. At the halt or moving slow, you are dependent on dismounts around you.
The only actual firepower the vehicle has is whatever heavy weapon you can put in the one roof hatch. Everyone else on the crew is either walking alongside, or a passive passenger. Ideally you should keep the roof hatch closed too, as part of the blast protection though. (This...
...is why sooner or later MRAPs always get remote weapons stations, robotic autofire weapons controlled by TV from inside the compartment. The camera is coaxial to the gun. There is nothing more terrifying to an Afg civilian than an MRAP driving down a street, it's 50cal...
Swinging side to side jerkily over the entire crowd, just like the bad robots in RoboCop. But I digress.)
So in an actual crowd control situation, the only thing you bring to the fight is the one guy on the roof and whatever you arm them with. Not much help.
In an ambush ...
So in an actual crowd control situation, the only thing you bring to the fight is the one guy on the roof and whatever you arm them with. Not much help.
In an ambush ...
...MRAPs don't stop. They drive through. That's their job, to get out of the zone. They drive on. Their point is Forcepro when you have no initiative, because the bad guy chooses when and if the IED goes off, and you don't. You can't fight the IED layers, who are likely long ...
... gone, but you can survive that first strike than you could otherwise. But if you know where the bad guys are, you don't ever engage them from an MRAP. It's a big target. And because of the high ground clearance it's real easy to bottom out or tip on bad ground. And because...
...they're so heavy, their ground pressure is terrible. If it's not in at least the equivalent of a gravel road, you're not going there.
Did I mention they are also very $$$ to fuel and maintain, and that's why armies are getting rid of them?
Can't patrol from them, can't ...
Did I mention they are also very $$$ to fuel and maintain, and that's why armies are getting rid of them?
Can't patrol from them, can't ...
... Fight from them, MRAPs are only good for one thing. Getting from point A to point B fast across a hostile stretch of territory with minimum casualties along the way.
So ask yourself: under what conditions is that useful for a police department?
Hostage situation/school ...
So ask yourself: under what conditions is that useful for a police department?
Hostage situation/school ...
... shooter? God no. MRAPs make lousy bullet shields: too high. Too high to make a good ambulance, too. You're not crossing miles of hostile ground first to get to the shooter, and you can't dismount rapidly on top of them. So nothing any regular police van couldn't do better.
Terrorism? Same problems. Plus the terrorists have seen DieHard too... Remember how un-useful the police armored car was in that? Big target, highly predictable movements, bad situational awareness, and a 50 cal rifle or a fallen log will do to stop it, never mind a missile.
Against a Koresh- or Weaver level competent opponent, it'd be either useless or a death trap.
Again, this tech is only useful to get people across hostile enemy controlled territory from safe area A to safe area B. To use it in law enforcement is to presume there's areas of ...
Again, this tech is only useful to get people across hostile enemy controlled territory from safe area A to safe area B. To use it in law enforcement is to presume there's areas of ...
...your area of responsibility where it's plausible a police cruiser could be interdicted with roadside explosives or other forms of deliberate lethal ambush en route to their destination. This made sense for the apartheid Afrikaners in Soweto. Does it make sense ANYWHERE in ...
...North America today? Seriously?
No, Obama was right to stop this stupid giveaway & Trump was evil to re-enable it. It presumes there's already an insurrection in progress, and the presence of police MRAPs in US cities will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if it continues.
No, Obama was right to stop this stupid giveaway & Trump was evil to re-enable it. It presumes there's already an insurrection in progress, and the presence of police MRAPs in US cities will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if it continues.
