Why America is Gladly Giving Away their $50 Billion Truck

The start of the MRAPS story begins in a very unlikely place. We can trace its roots back 40 years before their eventual integration in the US Military during the South African Border War between 1966 and 1990. South Africa was fighting against an insurgency that made use of hit and run ambush style attacks using triple stacked old soviet TM-57 mines.

Edited by: Michael M.

On October 4th 2022 The US government announced 200 MaxxPro MRAP vehicles were being sent to Ukraine as a part of a new $625 million dollar aid package. This armored truck's unique development story takes us through the biggest change in American defense equipment strategy since World War 2. The MRAP has even recently changed the appearance of the civilian police force in the United States.

The US Army estimates it will need to spend millions of dollars to destroy and get rid of 7,400 MRAPs it no longer needs. The services are getting rid of as many MRAPs as possible — even going so far as to shred thousands in Afghanistan instead of sending them home. The military is selling the shredded metal parts to local Afghans for scrap.

The International Journal of Protective Structures studied the effect of the bend radius against shaped V-hulls. They stated that previous versions of the mine resistant vehicles had too steep of an angle which raised the center of gravity and increased the chances of tipping over. So it’s always been a trade off here between drivers stability vs. protection.

Task & Purpose is a military news and culture oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

#ARMOR #WAR #TRUCK

[sheamcclure]

As a Sapper route clearance team leader in Baghdad in 2006-2007 I can tell you first hand the V hull saved just about all of my joes lives. We didn't have the new MRAPS but old school RGs (from South Africa) and Buffalos. The hits they took and we walked away from was absolutely incredible. Our Buffalo once took a 400lb HME hit directly under the hull...ripped all 3 axles off and flung the thing about 50 feet but we all walked away. Any other style truck was a death trap. My team alone cleared about 300 IEDs with about 50 hits, lots of concussions and a gunner took some shrapnel to the face but no KIA.

[jeremysale]

I deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 with war photographer Mike MaCleod attached to my battalion (2-504, 1st Brigade of the 82D). It was cool to see at one of his photos (at 8:46)...I think this was our Alpha company. This was up near Ghazni, out of FOB Arian. The MRAP definitely saved my ass; my squad was in an RG-33 when we got hit with a 40-60 kilo command det IED placed at a constriction point, a hairpin turn. It was the first no-casualty IED in the battalion. I thought we had run into a tree, the impact was so slight. Our gunner had a bit of a headache, but no one was really hurt even though we found pieces of our engine like 300 meters away. In Iraq in 2012 we had one get utterly perforated by an EFP, but we were running skeleton crews and miraculaously none of the three people aboard got hit directly. That was a Cougar, I think. We had a random hodgepodge of Alligators, Cougars, RG-33s, just whatever the motor pool could get running at the moment.

[shawnengelbrecht]

As an Iraq combat infantry veteran.... These mraps/kmans on my 2nd deployment performed extremely well and resisted mines/IEDs. Saved multiple lives in my platoon alone.

[donmclemore]

I made a lot of doors for these in fairfield Ohio. I was working for BAE SYSTEMS and we worked 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They gave us all the overtime we wanted. Best welding job i ever had.

[chrisandrews]

Any veteran will tell you hitting 50 mph in an up armored Humvee is like re-entering the earths atmosphere in a space shuttle.
The transmission is burning your calf hair off, everything is violently shaking, lights are flashing, the radios going off but you can't hear what's being said, and you can barely maintain control of the pencil thin steering wheel.
all in all, a very memorable experience.

[Siapanpeteellis]

Cappy, I was a Marine In Iraq in 2006 and saw the MRAP drama unfold! You did a tremendous job explaining the issues surrounding the USMC's acquisition and fielding of the MRAP. I really do like your videos and I recommend them to all my friends.

[StabbinJoeScarborough]

I had a stripped down humvee in iraq, traded armor for speed, worked out but I wont lie, those were some pretty anxious rides
Thanks Cappy

[RickGreg-ntnt]

I was an army infantryman between 2008 to 12 and did 15 months in Iraq. When we deployed we switched out our Bradley's for mine resisted ambush protected vehicles, or mrap it was the first military vehicle I rode in that actually had working a/c

[AMC_]

MRAPS saved my life twice. MATV saved my life once. Had I been in a humvee for either incident most of me would still be in Afghanistan.

[brentiers]

MRAPs were pushed to the line when I was on it. I'm 100% certain that MRAPs played a key role in me living through 15 months in Afghanistan.

[linds]

As a South African I love seeing our equipment on the international stage. The Casper was controversially used by our police during riots in Apartheid as well.

[MobiletentedcampsZa]

I drove the casspir in both urban riot and rural environments and can confirm that they were excellent in both applications. The earlier models had canvas roof coverings before petrol bombs necessitated a steel roof addition.

[dogball]

Dad talks about the Rhodesian bush war - many of the guys were saved when their vehicles had V-shaped hulls from mines. Excellent tech. back in the day. The "Pookie" was a famous vehicle for demining which utilised this.

[marcusmoonstein]

As ex-South African military I remember our vehicles well. They perform brilliantly if used for the purpose they were specifically designed for : low-intensity counter-insurgency warfare. The problems start when you try and use them for anything else.

[kyebetts]

I drove these trucks on about 100 patrols in Iraq in 2007. Before we were given MRAP's I had already been directly hit with an IED while driving an Armored Humvee and barely survived, so it was a blessing when my unit was given 2 cougar MRAP's it was a huge relief. And I drove the hell outta that puppy. They are kickass trucks!

[jeffbeck]

Wow, after reading a lot of comments from combat vets, MRAPS are the A-10 of ground vehicles. Service Chief and the Pentagon wants to get rid of or retire them, but the dudes on the ground still appreciate them. So many in the comments attribute their survival in Iraq/AFG to the MRAP. Powerful stuff.

[cavalryscout]

My unit had Cougars and MaxxPro's in Iraq, but rarely used them. Our most used vehicles were M1117 Guardian ASVs. The ASV was bought under the MRAP program, but they were traditional armored cars (updated Cadillac Gage V-100s) and generally made better combat vehicles. They were better off-road, less prone to rollovers, and had a better-armored turret with much more firepower (a Mk 19 and M2, in the turret, and M240 on a pintle above the turret). Since it was a traditional armored car, it was actually designed to match other armored cars like BTR and BRDM.

The only flaw with the ASV was that we only had 4 out of our 20 "gun trucks". We treated them as an asset for the whole troop, and would send 2 with each mission (we rarely had more than 2 missions outside the wire at once). For the other 2-4 trucks we usually ran HMMWVs with FRAG-6 armor kits and CREW systems (Counter Radiation Electronic Warfare; jammers that blocked remote detonators).

We would use the Cougars and MaxxPros when we expected to be on-road the whole mission, or when we were running too many missions to put the ASVs on all of them, but there were a lot of reasons that we preferred HMMWVs. The one that could have been fixed is that there was a lot of important equipment that we just could not get kits to mount on an the MaxxPro or Cougar since they didn't come through normal procurement (the big one being the CREW systems which jammed remote detonation of IEDs). No technical reason to not mount the equipment, we just couldn't get the kits. The part that couldn't be fixed (until the M-ATV and JLTV) is that the MaxxPro and Cougar were prone to rollovers and generally poor off-road vehicles, while our mission had us off-road about 70% of the time.

For fighting a peer adversary, of all the MRAPs, only the M1117 ASV is really good. It's more or less a baby Stryker Dragoon. The M-ATV and JLTV are good HMMWV-replacements, but their unarmored engine means that they need to avoid direct fire.

The MaxxPro, Cougar, and other Casspir-inspired MRAPs are really pretty bad front-line vehicles though. I could see Ukraine using them as armored cargo trucks, but they aren't significantly better in that role than MTVs and LMTVs with an armored cab. They could be backfield troop transports, but they are dangerous off-road so they would be limited in where they can go. They would be a good vehicle for the forces following right behind the front-line though. I'm sure Ukraine can use them, but that's because they are better than nothing.

[matbrown]

We lost 14 men in our battalion during the surge that most likely would’ve survived in MRAPs. Not to mention dozens whose lives were altered due to amputations. Difference between them and humvees was day and night. Would’ve money well spent imo to have got them to the battlefield earlier. Hope Ukraine can make good use of them.

[xax]

Thanks for this fascinating video, I grew up in South Africa and worked in Iraq from 2004-2008 and was suprised to see the old (reconditioned) Caspers appearing in Iraq which were a common sight in SA in the 80/90's. They were used by some of the "military contractors" and there was invariably one or more ex South African serviceman or policeman amongst them, they definitely saved lives. They were hit with IED's and everyone survived, I knew a few guys that sadly died in Humvees after hitting an IED. Never saw the MRAP in theatre, I probably left there before they arrived, I only heard the Marines had placed an order for vehicles on the same design as the Casper, the Marines I spoke to were eager to get them.

[occisoft]

I have been blown up in an mrap and was very glad to be in that vehicle.

The mrap had a lot of mechanical issues, especially trying to keep up with strykers, but it is definitely "mine resistant".