This really bad news
A roadside bomb in Iraq today struck a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and,

... flipped the 50,000-plus-pound Bradley Fighting Vehicle upside down and into a ditch, said Lt. Col. James Hutton, a 1st Cavalry spokesman. Rescue efforts were hampered by flames and secondary explosions, he said.

All seven soldiers aboard the vehicle died.

I find this disturbing because next to a tank, no combat vehicle is as well armored as the Bradley. A bomb that can flip it is one very powerful bomb, especially considering that CNN's report of its 50,000-pound weight is wrong. The Bradley's combat-loaded weight is 67,000 pounds.

It's too early to say that this kind of bomb construction indicates a new, deadlier capability on the insurgents' part.

Despite those attacks, Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz maintained the enemy is weaker and does not enjoy support among Iraqis.

Problem is that Iraqi intelligence service director General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani said in a news interview,

"I think the resistance is bigger than the U.S. military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people."

It's no confidence builder when two allied generals utter incompatible estimates of the enemy's strength.

Another reason the report of the bomb is bad news is more personal. Yesterday my son Stephen, a US Marine, began training at Camp Pendleton as a crewman of the Corp's amphibious assault vehicle (AAV).



Superfically similar to the Bradley, the AAV sports much less-capable armor. Whereas the Bradley is highly resistant to strikes by RPGs, Stephen says he has been informed that RPGs penetrate AAV armor easily.

I don't even want to think about what such a bomb as killed the Bradley would do to an AAV.

My son will complete training on March 11. There is no word yet on where his next assignment will be. The AAV is scheduled to be replaced beginning in fiscal year 2006 with the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (formerly called the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle). The armor of the EFV is supposed to be on a par with the Bradley's.

Update: Robert Lindsay fills in some context and explores previous "most powerful bomb" attacks against armored vehicles.

by Donald Sensing, 1/6/2005 08:54:10 PM. Permalink |