Afghan insurgents cripple U.S. armored vehicles

WASHINGTON - Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs, by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials.

At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity.

The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the eight-year war.

The attacks also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP - the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan - is to the powerful explosive charges that Taliban-led insurgents have been using against its bigger cousin.

The insurgents are also hitting MRAPs with rocket-propelled grenades that can penetrate their steel armor, according to U.S troops in Afghanistan, several of whom showed McClatchy Newspapers a photograph of a hole that one of the projectiles had punched in an MRAP's hull.

The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling about 16,000 vehicles, mostly for the Army and Marine Corps, according to an August report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

An additional $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version that U.S. defense officials contend offers as much protection as the large models do but that is more maneuverable and better suited to Afghanistan's dirt tracks and narrow mountain roads.

"The traditional MRAP was having real problems ... off road in Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. "And clearly we have to do a lot of work off road. And these new vehicles will provide our forces the ability to travel more safely off road - certainly off paved roads - than they would have been able to do with other vehicles."

Defense officials acknowledged the growing problem of successful attacks on MRAPs and said the U.S. military was constantly developing improvements for the vehicle that include better sensors and tactics.

"It's not all about the armor," said Navy Capt. Jack Henzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We can't build something that is impervious to everything. We are using a comprehensive strategy to try to provide for the protection of our forces."

October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the 2001 U.S. invasion. At least 59 Americans were killed, bringing the total for the year to at least 272, according to the Internet site iCasualties. At least 139 of those troops were killed by improvised explosive devices, according to the Pentagon.

U.S. officials insisted that many more troops would have been killed and injured in Afghanistan and in Iraq had they been equipped with vehicles other than MRAPs.