I just saw an interesting report on TV3 news that had been sourced from an American network (not sure which). It was showing US vehicles and tanks in an Alabama depot, which was one of five major army vehicle repair depots that repair battle damaged vehicles that have returned from the war in Iraq.
It was amazing, the depot had hundreds of Humvees, Bradleys and other vehicles all lined up, like the aircraft graveyards we see, stretching off into the distance, all knackered.
Apparently in the last year this depot had doubled its workload and parts of it now work 24/7 to keep up with the demand. The budget for repairing and replacing parts on these vehicles has billowed, so that this one depot’s annual budget was going to be over US$1 Billion, and across all five depots it is expected to excede US$7 Billion for the year. Wow.
Is it true in American terms a billion is 1,000,000,000,000? (ie – a million X a million). Here in NZ a billion means a thousand X a million (1000.000,000).
Apparently the tanks are having trouble coping with being long term in the desert conditions. The tracks get eaten by the sand. Many of the vehicles had clearly been blown up too, which wasn’t nice to see. The reporter made the point that all these thousands of fighting vehicles had been rendered useless and returned for repair due to an enemy who’s fire power was no more than grenades and shoulder mounted rockets. Scary when you think about it.
He also said, if the war stopped dead tomorrow and no more vehicles were to come in for repair, it would still take two years to clear the backlog of repairs needed to be done.
It makes you think about the cost of war in another way, not just lives. I’d never seen anything like this report from any war and from any side. I’d seen photos of recovery vehicles in WWII, etc, but you never think about where it goes to or how much it costs. The repair industry is quite an eye opener, to me at least.
When you consider also how much money is being put into transporting them all the way back home, that’s another aspect? I assume they go by the shipload rather than flying in cargo planes?
By: ink - 6th May 2005 at 11:18
While we’re on the subject(-ish) I’d like to ask a question that I cannot seem to find a satisfactory answer to: Does anyone have accurate/reliable figures for the vehicular losses of the US forces deployed in Iraq?
Obviously this is complicated to answer because one must first accept a particular definition of the concept of ‘loss’ – i.e. are vehicles lost when they’re out of the theatre and sent home for repairs or are they lost only when completely written off? Nonetheless, some figures would be welcome.
I’m particularly interested in comparing this to Russian Federation vehicular losses in the second Chechnya war… for relatively obvious reasons.
By: Sauron - 28th April 2005 at 02:43
Bmused
I was referring to the damage that done to U.S. equipment during the post invasion period. As the vast majority of attack are against U.S forces their equipment takes alot of damage. This thread is about equipment. Save your phony outrage for some other time.
Sauron
By: Grey Area - 27th April 2005 at 19:16
The relatively small number of U.K. forces in Iraq are seldom under fire because they are normally away from the action.
What utter nonsense – even by your standards, Sauron.
And what an insult to our armed forces on the day that Her Majesty presented Private Johnson Beharry with the VC awarded for his astounding courage under fire in……….. Iraq.
For shame, Sauron. For shame….. if you understand what the word means. 😡
By: Dave Homewood - 27th April 2005 at 09:45
Sauron, I never said anything of the sort of what you implied. My post was not about politics or nationalities. Yes, obviously military equipment needs maintenance. I was interested in the report because you got to SEE a side of war, any war, not normally seen by the public. That’s all.
By: Sauron - 27th April 2005 at 01:32
Should we be surprised that military equipment needs repair and overhaul after rough use? This is nothing new. Oh I get it. American equipment is not as good as British equipment which never needs repair. 😉
Sauron
By: Barnowl - 26th April 2005 at 20:53
The Warrior is the best MCV in the world, especially now we’re getting the Bradley’s turret for it!
BARNOWL
By: Distiller - 26th April 2005 at 12:28
Now you know why they built 8000 Abrams, 6000 Bradleys, and 175.000 Humvees!
And a billion is 10^9.
By: Arthur - 26th April 2005 at 12:23
An American billion is what other countries call a milliard (1000.000.000). The US uses the ‘French’ system (figures…), other countries use an earlier system which is also French. Lovely, isn’t it?
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April 26, 2005 at 12:08 pm