by Starman » Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:57 pm
Psychological Armour: A Parable of Invincible Bureaucratic Incompetance<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.rense.com/general66/pssyh.htm">www.rense.com/general66/pssyh.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>--excerpt--<br>I came up with something I called "The FLEA," which stood for, "Forward Light Escort, Armored." I used an unknown but powerful fiberglass armor for the body with hardened Lexgard windows. It was to be hydraulically operated with its wheels almost two feet away from the body, for protection against tank landmines. My design was based on my experience with landmines in Rhodesia as a member of their security forces in the terror war in the 70s. <br> <br>Shortly after my design was complete (1982), the army put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a new vehicle they called the "High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle," or "HMMWV." The new Jeep and light truck. I duly submitted the FLEA to Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) in Michigan. <br> <br>After a month or so, I called TACOM and inquired as to the progress of the selection process. The officer said, "The FLEA yes, I have it here Oh, yeah this is armored. We don't want armor." <br>. . .<br>First of all, the Humvee is just an aggressive-looking station wagon. It has four doors, unless they are removed. If you want to shoot out from the thing, the doors have to be removed, so you can swing your rifle around. That's what we did in Rhodesia, with our Land Rovers. Took the doors off so that when we drove into an ambush we could return fire and save ourselves. The Humvee's windows don't roll down, so you can't shoot with the doors closed. And it's pretty silly to open the door and try to stick your rifle out with the thing swinging around as you're trying to return fire, escaping up the road. A real tactical vehicle has no roof, either, so that you can see and shoot at an overhead threat. <br> <br>As we saw with the "psychological armor" bit, it doesn't really matter if the doors are on or off, because you have no protection either way. With the doors off, you can at least shoot back. With the doors on, you're a sitting duck. And the real problem is not bullets, but blast from IEDs. Serious armor protection was called for! Duh. <br> <br>So, when enough people started getting killed in these things, the army decided to armor them. It went from the ridiculous to the insane. <br>--unquote--<br><br><br>FLEA, a unique anti-mine armoured personnel carrier design with independantly-powered and suspended offset wheels and highly-effective but lightweight composite armour that greatly exceeded military specs, had been consistently rejected since 1982 by the Army's TACOM for being over-designed, and then in 2002 because the designer was 'politically incorrect'. Instead, the Army selected the extremely flawed Humvee, which has always been little more than a station-wagon in camo paint, and despite being up-graded and redesigned it has never been able to meet actual requirements. <br><br>It seems that way back in 1982 when the Pentagon put out a call for a multi-purpose scout and light supply vehicle, they were dead-set against approving any design that provided more than an absolute minimum of troop protection, almost as if choice of the basic Humvee configuration was a foregone conclusion. But as this article shows, the Humvee's standard bulky drive-train with close-in wheels greatly-limits what can be done to provide mine and esp. IUD protection. An early decision to make the body out of aluminum, to 'save weight', flew in the face of the most basic considerations of providing adequate troop protection. A multitude of composite and sandwich armour alternatives (which this article doesn't expand on, emphasizing the author's use of fiberglass and polycarbonate in his unique FLEA design) weren't even considered. <br><br>I remember at the time, back in 1982-83, Popular Mechanics and other automotive mags discussing the features that supposedly made Humvee the superior, preferred vehicle design -- independant suspension giving high ground clearance, tire inflation-control, multi-fuel engine, automatic transmission, horizontal-mounted radiator, set-back engine (for improved weight-displacement and center-of-gravity providing roll-over resistance), and ... that's all I can think of, really, pretty petty and trivial 'advantages' considering the inherant limitations of the station-wagon design. Seems, the FLEA with outrigger independant-steerable hydraulic (later, electric) -driven wheels still capable of driving with three of its six wheels blown away (like the Citroen, air-suspension allows remaining wheels to support the vehicle) was too different, too unique to be a serious contender. A relatively boxy-design would have facilitated such things as standardized pre-assembled armour-sandwich panels for quick repair, a hinged-removable turtle-top for use-versatility, offset wheels would have allowed a high-degree of protection from mines and IUDs, while fiberglass/polycarbonate armour would have kept weight down for road and bridge considerations. The upscaled Humvee is so overwight now that it can barely do the job it was originally meant for.<br><br>As a result of being locked-into the Humvee concept, how many thousands of troops have been killed or injured, 'sacrified' for the sake of bureaucratic decision-making that was insulated from real-world considerations, essentially trapped into trying to remodify an unworkable design, essentially trying to play catch-up while being blindfolded and having hands tied. What an incredible boondoggle in costs, too. If there was ANY accountability for the decision-making process that led to the Humvee being selected instead of something like the FLEA, then SOME people would be indicted for incompetance at the very-least, if not just censured or disciplined or demoted or court-martialed. But of course, as we've seen with the Bush Gang, incompetance is rewarded, and failure is promoted upwards. And so, the Humvee stands as a monument of sorts, a parable of idiotic, delusional thinking that got America into an occupational morass by way of non-existent 'threat' that morphed into 'liberation', where now the only way 'out' the Generals can come up with is to unleash Saddam's murderous killers, make ever-bigger prisons, drop more bombs, and starve or terrorize the people into submission.<br><br>Yah team, rah!<br>Starman<br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :smokin --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smokin.gif ALT=":smokin"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :eek --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eek.gif ALT=":eek"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
