WASHINGTON — The deaths of two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad last week have sparked concerns that Iraqi insurgents have developed a new weapon capable of striking what the U.S. military considers its most explosive-resistant vehicle.
The soldiers were in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protective vehicle, or MRAP, when an explosion sent super-heated metal through the armor and into the vehicle.
The deaths brought to eight the number of American troops killed while riding in an MRAP, which was developed and deployed to Iraq last year.
The military has praised the vehicles for saving hundreds of lives, saying they could withstand the IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, that have been the biggest killers of Americans in Iraq. The Pentagon has set aside $5.4 billion to acquire 4,000 MRAPs at more than $1 million each, making the MRAP the Defense Department’s third-largest acquisition program, behind missile defense and the Joint Strike Fighter.
But Wednesday’s attack has shown that the MRAPs are vulnerable to an especially potent form of IED known as an EFP, for explosively formed penetrator, which fires a superheated cone of metal through the vehicle’s armor.
Military officials are still trying to determine whether last week’s attack is a sign of “new vulnerabilities (in the vehicle) or new capabilities” on the part of insurgents, said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
