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Army officials tout success of reactive armor

Apr-14-2007 » Filed Under: Stryker Vehicle

By Kris Osborn, Army Times

Army officials credit their effort to install reactive armor on more armored vehicles with cutting the number of casualties from rocket-propelled grenades in Iraq. They also said the armor, which triggers a small explosion to fend off a larger one, has reduced the Army’s immediate need for active protection systems, which are intended to shoot down incoming weapons.

“The reactive armor and slat armor protection systems currently deployed contribute to the effectiveness of our current combat systems to defeat the RPG threat without the use of an active protection system,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the acquisition and systems management deputy to the assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, told lawmakers in September.

Since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, 148 U.S. soldiers have been killed by RPGs, including 10 who died inside armored vehicles, Sorenson told the lawmakers.

Casualty figures compiled by Defense News paint a similar picture, showing 122 RPG-related deaths: 84 from March 2003 through December 2004 and 38 since.

Senior Army leaders decided in late 2004 to start sending more reactive armor to forces in Iraq, Sorensen said April 13.

In 2004, they decided to put reactive armor tiles on all of the service’s Abrams tanks, Bradley armored personnel carriers and Stryker fighting vehicles, he said.

“We had a number of reactive armor tiles that had been built, so we had to go back and buy them and put them on,” Sorensen said.

Today, all of the roughly 1,000 Bradley vehicles in Iraq have received the armor, he said. General Dynamics has made reactive armor for the Bradley since 1995; over the years, its orders have totaled $500 million for 1,450 sets.

GD also is making 500 sets of tank-armor tiles under a 2006 $59 million contract with Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. The first 100 tank sets have been delivered to the Anniston Depot, Ala., and will soon be shipped to Iraq.

The first set of Stryker reactive armor tiles has been completed, said Sorenson. [...]


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