Battleland

Blast Effects

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War is action v. reaction. The insurgents got the upper hand in Iraq with their improvised explosive devices. We countered with $40 billion worth of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. That worked for a while.

But the advantage is shrinking. Six U.S. troops, all inside a single MRAP, died Sunday in Afghanistan in the blast of a single IED. “It was a MaxxPro variant of the MRAP, one vehicle,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said Tuesday. “It was really just a large amount of explosive materials — material that was used to penetrate the hull of the MRAP.”

Bottom line: it’s a lot easier for the enemy to build and deploy a 200-pound bomb than it is for the U.S. military to build and deploy hulking armored vehicles. Any advantage is fleeting.

War is action v. reaction. The insurgents got the upper hand in Iraq with their improvised explosive devices. We countered with $40 billion worth of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. That worked for a while.

But the advantage is shrinking. Six U.S. troops, all inside a single MRAP, died Sunday in Afghanistan in the blast of a single IED. “It was a MaxxPro variant of the MRAP, one vehicle,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said Tuesday. “It was really just a large amount of explosive materials — material that was used to penetrate the hull of the MRAP.”

Bottom line: it’s a lot easier for the enemy to build and deploy a 200-pound bomb than it is for the U.S. military to build and deploy hulking armored vehicles. Any advantage is fleeting.