MRAPs getting upgraded escape hatches

[unhappycamper]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/28/pentagon-mraps-bombs/1866555/



$1+ million dollar MRAP.

MRAPs getting upgraded escape hatches
Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY5:19p.m. EST January 28, 2013

WASHINGTON -- Massive roadside bombs in Afghanistan have forced the military to retrofit armored trucks with better escape hatches to rescue troops wounded in the explosions, according to documents and interviews with defense officials.

The Pentagon has sought to shift $48 million from its accounts to pay for more than 500 new escape hatches for its Cougar version of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and for upgrades to its other versions of the trucks.

That's because, Pentagon records show, Taliban insurgents have buried bombs weighing more than 2,000 pounds that are capable of flipping over 40,000-pound vehicles. Defense officials have added more harnesses inside MRAPs to keep troops from being tossed around inside the vehicles during an explosion, improved lighting to help them escape and more protection on the outside.

Every month, U.S. troops encounter at least two massive bombs, usually formed from homemade explosives packed into multiple 40-pound cooking-oil jugs, said David Small, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.