Oshkosh wins contract to supply military vehicles for Afghanistan

Aside from the hideous grill design, I think this is a huge step up from the old monstrous MRAP designs. There is a clear difference between an armored vehicle intended to soak up hits while moving infantry from point A to B, and combat vehicles intended to maneuver and put ordinance on the enemy, and its nice to see were finally getting some of the latter. It doesn't mention weapons, but presumably it will mount anything the Humvee can.

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January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

These are the types of weapon systems that make sense buying.

uh...I MUST be dropping a digit somewhere.

It's GOT to cost 47,000, not 470,000

Still 2244 times 47000 is 105,468,000

and 2244 times 470,000 is 1,054,680,000

Jesu, a a half mill per? Little high for a Super Jeep, yes? Even the Hummer H2 is only 65-70 grand nicely furbished.

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Alizee Jacotay, the reason god invented hips

The German equivalent is even more expensive....

650.000 to 2.000.000 Euro!

Perhaps it's because developement is included in the price....

At least people survive IEDs with 10kg of explosives... that's good

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The "plan" is to use up the rest of the world's oil while they are still naive enough to give it to us in return for paper.

Ahhh the dingo. The Bundeswehr unit stationed in Kuwait (before the war) had one of those (maybe two?).

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I am a liberal, a classical liberal. Classical liberalism is liberalism, but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. In Europe they are glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are.

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I remember seeing an article a while back that the standard car seating (everyone facing forward, except for the turret gunner) wasn't ideal for military vehicles and that there had been experiments with seating everyone facing out (i.e. 2 side seats facing left and right, driver facing forward, someone facing rear) but other then a single prototype I haven't heard anything more in that regard.

Armor is expensive, and the HMMWV is a relative death trap.

Looks like a remote turret, which would add to it too, as well as improve the survival rates of the crew.

And odds are it's not going to protect you too well from an IED...

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For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

That doesn't factor in well with the view that people like Drake have, though; that is that the more troops killed, the better for their political agendas, so it's all good...

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For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

I wouldn't call it a death trap per se. I mean, in Iraq, it has been pushed a bit beyond its intended purpose.

During the invasion my unit didn't have any armor for our HMMWVs. We had canvas doors for fuck sake, and we ended up taking them off to make it easier to get in and out.

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I am a liberal, a classical liberal. Classical liberalism is liberalism, but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. In Europe they are glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are.

Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Industriousness, Self-Reliance, Perseverance

True, for its intended purpose it works decently. For what it has been used it is woefully insufficient. My understanding was that they have problems including a door lip which is liable to trip troops on exit from the vehicle, doors which have a tendency to become stuck closed prior to battle damage, as well the doors have a tendency to fail to close fully and which if not held can fly open when moving. In addition because it was not designed for armor, thus couldn't handle the up-armoring while remaining a capable combatant.

All that mattered on the uparmored Humvee was that politicians were doing something.

__________________
January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

The vehicle is armored. As Steve points out a Humvee isn't going to protect the troops inside from an IED. These vehicles appear to be well worth the price.

yes well this is a step down in size from the M-RAP, which is too heavy for many of the bridges etc. in Afghanistan, but a step up as to accessibility. This appears to be a good trade off.

hey wow, did the 'military-industrial' complex just create some jobs?

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I fail to see how thats novel or noteworthy... Every single military purchase is dependent on jobs in the right districts. In fact its a major problem in terms of bloat, value+ features, and the military getting things it doesn't need.