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Pentagon ships new M-ATVs to Afghanistan
The Oshkosh M-ATV will be replacing up-armored Humvees in Afghanistan.
(Credit: Oshkosh Defense)U.S. troops in Afghanistan are now starting to receive the first of thousands of a new vehicle intended for treacherous mountain roads and tight urban lanes.
The Defense Department said Wednesday that it had loaded seven M-ATVs (for "mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles") onto a pair of aircraft for deployment to Afghanistan. Over the course of the next year, the military expects to field more than 6,600 of the vehicles (Click for a PDF of the M-ATV's brochure).
The M-ATV fits into a middle ground between up-armored Humvees, which it will be replacing in Afghanistan, and the hulking MRAP mine-resistant vehicles that the Pentagon has been sending in large numbers to Iraq over the last couple of years. While MRAPs have proved effective in protecting passengers against improvised explosive devices, they are often too large and too heavy for the roadways soldiers often need to patrol. And they're not exactly designed for off-roading.
Mine-resistant vehicles are characterized in part by their intrinsic armoring and by a V-shaped hull that helps to deflect the force of explosions at ground level. Humvees, meanwhile, weren't originally designed with IEDs in mind and have had to use add-on armor to gain some measure of protection.
The Oshkosh M-ATV weighs in at about 11 tons, which is only half as heavy as the average MRAP, and 5 tons lighter than the lightest MRAP. (Humvees are in the range of 5 tons apiece.) It can carry four passengers plus a gunner, and can handle a payload of 4,000 pounds.
A pair of M-ATVs are strapped down in a C-17 aircraft on Wednesday, awaiting shipment to Afghanistan.
(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/James M. Bowman)The new vehicle is powered by a 370-horsepower Caterpillar C7 engine, with an Allison 3500 SP transmission. It's built on Oshkosh's TAK-4 independent suspension system, which the company says has been used already on more than 10,000 Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements (MTVRs) supplied to the Marines and Seabees.
In the field, the M-ATV is expected to support small-unit combat operations in challenging rural, mountainous, and urban environments.
Through the end of the year, when transport by sea is scheduled to begin, the U.S. Air Force expects to airlift between 300 and 500 M-ATVs per month from Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina. The 437th Aerial Port Squadron there has already dispatched more than 3,700 MRAPs overseas.
Oshkosh received its initial delivery order from the Pentagon at the end of June. The deal was valued at $1.05 billion for 2,244 of the M-ATVs.
Update, 1:18 p.m. PDT: Oshkosh said Thursday that to date it has received orders valued at $2.3 billion for 4,296 M-ATVs, including spare parts and support services.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
Looks like Oshkosh and several Politicians are getting rich!
Does that F350 have half inch steel armor, chemical agent neutralizing paint, ultra high output LED lights all the way around? A 360 degree rotating turret? Or a system that defeats radio controlled IED's? Not to mention Sat Comm. ability or Thermal sights and tracking systems that allow you to keep tabs on friendly units? I'm not saying that I believe that these things are NOT overpriced. What I will say, is that there is much, MUCH more worked into the price of these than the picture would imply. And for the record, Kevlar and BP glass won't save you from an IED made out of 2-3 daisy-chanined 155 rounds.
http://www.srcinc.com/what-we-do/product.aspx?id=95
This money would be better invested in deploying more troops to secure and hold the roads in the first place and help development of the country an training of the afghan army. More UAVs to monitor the road. An actually building tarmac roads, something coalition is way behind schedule on, making it even more difficult to deploy an hide IDEs in the first place. These would not only save lives but solve the problem permanently.
This just sewing a external wound up without stopping the internal bleeding, it might buy time but it will not save the patent.
"Permanently"? You ARE an optimist, aren't you?
Despite the false bravado of your metaphors about bleeding wounds, you clearly don't know anything about IEDs. A paved road may be harder to boobytrap with an IED, but it is far from impossible to do and it can give a false sense of security. Instead of digging a hole in the dirt road, they won't dig one through the tarmac, but instead will tunnel in from the ditch at the side of the road. Remember that utility companies back home can get cables and pipes under driveways and sidewalks without digging them up. They start with a hole off to the side and force a small-diameter tunnel under it through which their utilities are fed. Substitute an IED and there goes your "permanently safe" paved road.
However, most IEDs are hidden at the side of the road, not in the middle of it, so paved or unpaved makes little or no difference to hiding an IED.
Now you can (try to) explain how buying these vehicles is both "a bit useless" and "may save a few lives". I'd like to see you try to explain this to the fellow soldiers of those who have been killed by IEDs, or to those soldiers who have been injured by IEDs, or to the families of any of the above.
You say the money would be "better invested in deploying more troops to secure and hold the roads in the first place". It obviously has not occurred to you that those troops would need vehicles capable of dealing with IEDs or were you planning to beam them in, Scotty?
The IEDs are not intended to pierce armour, they're designed to cause blast damage. That's what throws vehicles into the air and drops them back down, or knocks them onto their side, it's what causes blast injuries to troops in, on, and around the vehicle, it's what stops a convoy so it can be attacked, either by small arms or by a second IED. You really don't know any more about what happens there than what you hear on Fox News once in a while, do you?
If you want to support the idea of having more troops there, and for a longer term, and to both defeat the Taliban and to rebuild the country, then please learn more facts and be more helpful with your posts. Despite my criticisms, thank you for not just advocating NATO cut and run.
- by Oshkosh777 November 1, 2009 7:59 AM PST
- Hi Names Eric...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by Oshkosh777 November 1, 2009 8:05 AM PST
- ^ Cheers*
- Like this
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(19 Comments)First of all, I want to thank all the men and women in the Armed Forces. Thank you for doing what you do everyday. It takes courage to do what you do... (or a lot of crazy!) haaha
...Why do I get to wake up with a smile everytime my alarm clock goes off? I'll try to explain. It's because it means I get to go to work. Yes, I said it... That also means I get to help build 11 ton Ogre's. I as well as many others, have the ability to see darn near every bolt, fastner, nut, hose, and washer go on this beast called, "M-ATV".
I've read the comments on here and giggled at some, and just kinda shook my head with the others.
I can almost bet on which ones were posted by Servicemen, and which ones were posted by the hillbilly folk... I would never call someone "stupid" or a "dumba$$" without knowing them. I was raised better than that... BUT, I will say that they were made by some "naive" people just because for the simple fact that most folks just dont fully understand how some things work. Nothing personal...
I just about laughed my butt off when I read the F350 post. NO, it's not built on any exsisting F-ANYTHING chassis, Yes, they do cost over $440k dollars JUST to build, when all's said and done and fitted with the latest and greatest weapons and bad-guy finding technology... They are most likely in the area roughly in the $1 million dollar range. Hard to fathom, but It's not hard to understand why after you see them being built. Too bad I can't get my company discount on one. My ultimate fantasy pick of the litter would be one fitted with a 30mm auto cannon that can be operated from inside via joystick and computer screen. Much safer than a "duck-blind". THAT would be my only advice to give the Army or Marine Corps. Just put a remote controlled 30mm auto cannon on top with a 360 degree turret and a decent optics and thermals. BADABING! I'd even make it electric so the bad guys couldn't hear you until...well. Until the last time they heard you. :P
The only thing we wont, (and you can probably bet your lunch money on this...) and DON'T do at Oshkosh Corp, is build a 2nd rate vehicle. I'm not a spokesperson for Oshkosh by any means.. I'm just a simple t-shirt and jeans assembler, nothing fancy.. Just like the other 99% of the people I work with 5, 6, and sometimes 7 days a week.
We are 2nd to none... And you can tell your friends and keyboard critics, Eric said so. :)
On a more personal note... My favorite part of the day doesn't come from seeing a "big ol' truck" get built, or listening to that C-7 Caterpillar turbo diesel 6 cylinder symphony taking fire up, and take it's first breath on the line. It's not watching them being test drivin' around town, or even hearing the lunch bell ring. For some that might be the best part of their work day, but mine is simply... punching into the time clock.
To me it means, from that point on...
"We" get to build an amazing truck.
"We" get the opportunity to help wrap some armor around a much needed life.
"We" get to aid in putting a smile on an unsuspecting American Soldiers face when he or she first hears one of these scoot by them for the first time.
"We" get to see our trucks on the news just about everyday for the last... well, quite a long time now?!
"We work ours off, for the men and women riskin' their's"
...I might just be another face in the crowd at work, just another pair of hands to help out with a lil overtime now and again. I'm not the strongest guy ever or even the smartest, but I do know that I get to personally help ensure someone is a lil safer "over-there" by the time I punch out.
¡s?????
Eric.