Why troops love, and sometimes hate, the MRAP.

• Author: Ake, David C.
• Position: Tactical Vehicles

On April 25, 2010, Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Sampsell peered through the ballistic glass of his heavily armored truck, trying to sec through the rooster tail of dust ahead of him.

Three other 14-ton behemoths--known as category I mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles--rolled in front of him at 5 mph, conducting a mounted patrol in Baraki Barak District in Logar Province, Afghanistan. Sampsell's cavalry scout platoon, of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, crept slowly because the route had become known as a death trap that was strewn with improvised explosive devices, and because 5 mph was a safe driving speed on the rough roads.

As the vehicles moved south, a small boy riding a bicycle pedaled around Sampsell's vehicle. He stopped in front of the 10-foot-tall MRAP and shook his head before quickly taking off in the opposite direction. Looking back, Sampsell now realizes that was a signal. The boy was trying to warn him. A short distance down the road, not far from where the boy stopped his bicycle, an IED containing 300 pounds of homemade explosive detonated under Sampsell's MRAP, directly beneath his seat.

"I didn't hear anything, everything just went black. I felt like I was in the air and then confirmed that when the vehicle slammed back to the ground," Sampsell said.

This is precisely the type of life-threatening event for which the MRAP was created. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates--who personally intervened to expedite the production and delivery of these vehicles to war zones--regarded the MRAP as one of his proudest achievements. He got Congress to approve up to $36 billion for MRAP procurements.

MRAP has proven to be 10 times safer than Humvees against [ED attacks like the one on Sampsell's vehicle. According to the Defense Department, the casualty rate for an MRAP is 6 percent. In contrast, the casualty rate for a 70-ton M-l Abrams main battle tank is about 15 percent. A Humvee's is 22 percent.

The increased survivability that MRAP provided in IED blasts, however, came at a price. Because the vehicle was rushed to the battlefield--since 2008, more than 27,000 have been produced--troops encountered several safety problems that at times endangered MRAP occupants even if they had managed to survive an IED blast. The fast-paced acquisition and deployment of the trucks made it difficult for these problems to be identified and fixed before MRAPs were handed to soldiers.

When Sampsell's vehicle hit the ground, the engine compartment was engulfed in flames. He called for a crew report from the six passengers in his vehicle and discovered they were all alive. Had they been traveling in a Humvee, most likely they would have not survived. His medic--the only one unscathed in the MRAP--went to work on two unconscious soldiers.

Sampsell had two compound, open fractures on his right ankle, two compound, open fractures near his right elbow and two compound, closed fractures on his left forearm. This was the 14th IED he'd been hit by in three deployments--one to Iraq and two to Afghanistan--and from experience he knew' his crew had to escape quickly.

"We didn't have much time before ammunition inside the vehicle began cooking off from the heat or before the vehicle completely caught fire," he said.

He tried opening his door but it only moved about an inch. Heavy MRAP doors are equipped with a pneumatic system that stores compressed air to help open and close them.

"It's a good system except that the tanks holding the air are in no way protected, and in this case, had been destroyed," Sampsell said.

Sampsell's driver regained consciousness and quickly discovered his door wouldn't budge either. One of his soldiers in the crew compartment repeatedly tried to lower the rear hydraulic ramp, but it was rendered inoperable by the blast. Their only way out was a painful egress through the roof turret.

"Ten feet in the air, on a burning vehicle, fully exposed to enemy fire and no real way to get down. Luckily, the enemy didn't conduct a complex ambush [with rocket-propelled grenades or small arms fire] that day," Sampsell said.

Other soldiers from the scout platoon helped lower the wounded down to the ground, and a medevac helicopter arrived just eight minutes after the request was called in. The MRAP did what it was supposed to do; it protected Sampsell and his soldiers.

The platoon's story in many ways explains why MRAP has been both worshipped and reviled by U.S. soldiers and marines. They're vehicles designed for survivability that do their...