Improvised vehicle armour - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Improvised vehicle armour is vehicle armour

Vehicle armour

Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, missiles, or shells, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include tanks, aircraft, and ships....

added in the field that was not originally part of the design or centrally planned.

Improvised vehicle armour has appeared on the battlefield for as long as there have been armoured vehicles in existence. In World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, U.S. tank crews welded spare strips of tank track to the hulls of their Sherman

M4 Sherman

The M4 Sherman, formally Medium Tank, M4, was the primary tank used by the United States during World War II. Thousands were also distributed to the Allies, including the British Commonwealth and Soviet armies, via lend-lease...

, Grant

M3 Lee

The Medium Tank M3 was an American tank used during World War II. In Britain the tank was called "General Lee", named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and the modified version built with a new turret was called the "General Grant", named after U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant.Design commenced...

, and Stuart tank

Stuart tank

The M3 Stuart, formally Light Tank M3, was an American light tank of World War II and supplied to British and Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war—and used thereafter by U.S...

s. In the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, U.S. "gun truck

Gun truck

A military gun truck is an improvised fighting vehicle used by units of regular armies or other official government armed forces, based on a conventional cargo truck, that is able to carry a large weight of weapons and armor...

s" were reinforced with sandbag

Sandbag

A sandbag is a sack made of hessian/burlap, polypropylene or other materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification, shielding glass windows in war zones and ballast....

s and locally fabricated steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

armour plate.

More recently, U.S. troops in Iraq have armoured their Humvees and various military transport vehicles with scrap materials:
this came to be known as "hillbilly armor" by the Americans, or sometimes "hajji armour" when installed by Iraqi contractors.

World War I

In effect the first armoured cars to see combat were entirely improvised although this soon changed as the war continued. A few were used by the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

army during the German invasion. The British Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

received reports of this and converted some of their own cars. Improvised conversion continued until December 1914 when the first standardized design entered service.

World War II

Most armies involved in the conflict adopted some form of improvised armour at some point. The Home Guard in the United Kingdom equipped itself with a number of vehicles with improvised armour. Later in 1944 some Churchill tanks had sections of track attached to their existing armour to provide extra protection. M8 Greyhound

M8 Greyhound

The M8 Light Armored Car was a 6x6 armored car produced by the Ford Motor Company during World War II. It was used by the U.S. and British troops in Europe and the Far East until the end of the war. The vehicle was widely exported and as of 2006 still remains in service with some third world...

crews would sometimes line the floors of their vehicles with sandbag

Sandbag

s to provide extra protection against landmines.
U.S. tanks sometimes had spare strips of track welded to the hulls. This was done with the Sherman

M4 Sherman

, Grant

M3 Lee

, and Stuart tank

Stuart tank

s.

During the North African Campaign

North African campaign

During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...

the German Afrika Korps

Afrika Korps

The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...

attached strips of spare track to the front of their Panzer III

Panzer III

Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and...

Vietnam

In the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

, U.S. gun truck

Gun truck

s were armoured with sandbags and locally fabricated steel

Steel

armour plate.

Iraq

In post-invasion Iraq, improvised vehicle armour is colloquially referred to as Hillbilly armor, farmer armor or hajji armor by American troops

Military of the United States

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

.

When American troops first took Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

, only the U.S. military police had fully armoured vehicles. During the occupation that followed the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

's regime, insurgent forces

Iraqi insurgency

The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...

deployed roadside bombs, RPG

RPG-7

The RPG-7 is a widely-produced, portable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Originally the RPG-7 and its predecessor, the RPG-2, were designed by the Soviet Union, and now manufactured by the Bazalt company...

teams, and snipers with small arms

Small arms

Small arms is a term of art used by armed forces to denote infantry weapons an individual soldier may carry. The description is usually limited to revolvers, pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, battle rifles, multiple barrel firearms, sniper rifles, squad automatic weapons, light...

to attack military vehicle

Military vehicle

A military vehicle is a vehicle that includes all land combat and transportation vehicles, which are designed for or are in significant use by military forces throughout the world. Vehicles that are armored or intended for combat are often referred to as armoured fighting vehicles....

s on supply convoys and other known routes.

To protect themselves from these threats, American troops began reinforcing their Humvees, LMTVs and other vehicles with whatever was available, including scrap metal

Scrap Metal

Scrap Metal were a band from Broome, Western Australia who played rock music with elements of country and reggae. The members had Aboriginal, Irish, Filipino, French, Chinese, Scottish, Indonesian and Japanese heritage. The band toured nationally as part of the Bran Nue Dae musical and with...

, kevlar

Kevlar

Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

blankets and vests, compromised ballistic glass

Bulletproof glass

Bulletproof glass is a type of strong but optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets, but is not completely impenetrable. It is usually made from a combination of two or more types of glass, one hard and one soft...

and plywood

Plywood

Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

. In some cases they relied on Iraqis to assist them in these efforts, and referred to the result as "Hajji" armour. They were also officially advised to line the floors of their Humvees with sandbags to deaden the impact of land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

explosions. A similar practice was common among M8 Greyhound

M8 Greyhound

crews during WW2.

Some officers in Iraq were disciplined over their refusal to carry out missions in what they considered improperly armoured vehicles.

Military-supplied "up-armour"

The Army began deploying 'up-armour' kits to better protect military vehicles in August 2003, two years before the Marine Corps would. Three levels of 'up-armour' were implemented:

Level I: fully integrated armour installed during vehicle production or retrofit (including ballistic windows)
Level II: add-on armour (including ballistic windows)
Level III: locally fabricated armour (interim solution, lacking ballistic windows)

The process of up-armouring all vehicles was to be complete by mid-2005.

As recently as February 2006, the Army was welding additional armour onto the armoured Humvee variant M1114 and 5-ton MTV in Iraq.

The United States Marines

United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

developed their own Marine Armour Kit (MAK), consisting of bolt-on armour for the crew compartment, ballistic glass, suspension upgrades, and air conditioning. However, the kit was not fielded until early 2005, and even then only to certain specified units. The armour was made available for MTVR

Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement

Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement or 7-Ton, is a six-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle used by the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy....

s, LVS

Logistics Vehicle System

The Logistics Vehicle System , is a modular assortment of eight-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles used by the United States Marine Corps....

s and HMMWVs. Level I armour kits are now phasing out MAKs for MTVRs and M1114 HMMWVs.

Rumsfeld questioning incident

The practice of U.S. troops reinforcing their vehicles with improvised armour became well known after a U.S. soldier questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

about the need to salvage armour from scrap materials on December 8, 2004 at Camp Buehring

Camp Buehring

Camp Buehring is a staging post for US troops in the northwestern region of Kuwait. The base is used for military troops heading north into Iraq as well as the primary location for the Middle Eastern Theater Reserve...

, Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

. The question was met with cheers from fellow troops.

Rumsfeld was paying a visit to approximately 2,300 troops on the eve of their deployment across the border to Iraq. Specialist

Specialist (rank)

Specialist is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, just above Private First Class and equivalent in pay grade to Corporal. Unlike Corporals, Specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officers...

Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team (Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

Army National Guard

Established under Title 10 and Title 32 of the U.S. Code, the Army National Guard is part of the National Guard and is divided up into subordinate units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia operating under their respective governors...

) asked the question, but it was later revealed that Lee Pitts, an embedded reporter

Embedded journalist

Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq...

for the Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metro Chattanooga region of Tennessee and Northwest Georgia...

, had asked Wilson to make the inquiry.

Several related questions were asked of Rumsfeld by other troops. Some of Wilson's fellow soldiers and commanders supported his inquiry in later interviews. Col. John Zimmermann, Staff Judge Advocate of Wilson's unit said that 95 percent of the unit's 300 vehicles lacked appropriate armour, and suggested that it was the result of a double standard used to equip the National Guard as compared with active-duty forces.

On December 9, 2004, President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

responded to the incident, saying that the expressed concerns were being addressed.

On December 10, 2004, it was reported that following the incident, Armor Holdings, Inc.

Armor Holdings, Inc.

Armor Holdings, Inc. was a manufacturer of military, law enforcement and personnel safety equipment. It was acquired by BAE Systems on July 31, 2007 and renamed BAE Systems Mobility & Protection Systems...

, the company producing armoured Humvees for the Army, was asked to increase production from 450 to 550 per month—its maximum capacity. Also on December 10, Congressman Marty Meehan

Marty Meehan

Martin Thomas "Marty" Meehan is an American attorney and politician from the state of Massachusetts. He is the current Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, a position he assumed on July 1, 2007...

(D-MA, House Armed Services Committee) issued a news release harshly critical of the Bush administration and The Pentagon

The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

: Meehan described the shortage of armoured vehicles as "a dangerously exposed center of gravity" of America's military presence in Iraq, and the lack of preparedness for insurgent tactics such as deploying improvised explosive device

Improvised explosive device

An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...

s (IEDs) as "symptomatic of a headlong rush to war."

On December 15, 2004, the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

held a special briefing on the issue of up-armouring. Officials stated that the process of up-armouring SPC Wilson's unit was nearly complete on December 8, and was completed within 24 hours of the incident. Brig. Gen. Jeff Sorenson, Deputy for Acquisition Systems Management, stated during the briefing that fully armoured vehicles had been isolated and destroyed in the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's campaigns in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and that the hearts and minds

Hearts and Minds

Hearts and Minds may refer to:* A biblical quotation; see the Wikisource link-Film:* Hearts and Minds , a 1974 documentary film about the Vietnam War-Television:...

aspect of the Army's counterinsurgency efforts would be negatively impacted were soldiers to remain isolated from the populace in fully armoured vehicles.

Aftermath

The way the incident was portrayed by some media outlets—particularly that Rumsfeld's answer to Wilson may have been quoted without sufficient context—and the revelation that an embedded reporter may have "planted" the question received critical reaction in the following days.

The incident sparked criticism of Rumsfeld, and led some to question the nation's commitment to its troops.

Libya

During the 2011 Libyan civil war

2011 Libyan civil war

The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

, anti-Gaddafi forces

Anti-Gaddafi forces

The anti-Gaddafi forces were Libyan groups that opposed and militarily defeated the government of Muammar Gaddafi, killing him in the process. These opposition forces included organised and armed militia groups, participants in the 2011 Libyan civil war, Libyan diplomats who switched their...

were seen operating T-55

T-55

The T-54 and T-55 tanks were a series of main battle tanks designed in the Soviet Union. The first T-54 prototype appeared in March 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. The T-54 entered full production in 1947 and became the main tank for armored units of the Soviet Army, armies of...

tanks and Technicals with improvised armour mounted on them, likely in an attempt to improve survivability against superior Libyan Army

Libyan Army

In 2009 the IISS estimated that the Ground Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya numbered 25,000 with an additional, estimated, 25,000 conscripts...

hardware such as T-72

T-72

The T-72 is a Soviet-designed main battle tank that entered production in 1970. It is developed directly from Obyekt-172, and shares parallel features with the T-64A...

tanks.

Non-military use

During the 1984 UK miners' strike

UK miners' strike (1984–1985)

The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...

, bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es used for transporting strikebreaker

Strikebreaker

A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...

s to work were armoured against attacks by strikers by fitting metal bars to their windows. These improvised armoured buses were nicknamed "battle buses".

In recent years, some storm chasers

Storm chasing

Storm chasing is broadly defined as the pursuit of any severe weather condition, regardless of motive, which can be curiosity, adventure, scientific exploration or for news professions/media coverage....

in the United States have developed purpose-made Tornado Intercept Vehicle

Tornado Intercept Vehicle

-The TIV 2:Casey and his team developed and built the second Tornado Intercept Vehicle, dubbed "TIV 2", to be featured in their next IMAX movie and the Storm Chasers series. Work began in September 2007 by 40 welding students at the Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton, Oklahoma and was...

s designed to survive the hostile environment inside a tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

. These vehicles are built on truck and SUV

Sport utility vehicle

A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...

chassis with heavy armour shells built onto them consisting of steel, kevlar

Kevlar

, polycarbonate

Polycarbonate

PolycarbonatePhysical PropertiesDensity 1.20–1.22 g/cm3Abbe number 34.0Refractive index 1.584–1.586FlammabilityV0-V2Limiting oxygen index25–27%Water absorption – Equilibrium0.16–0.35%Water absorption – over 24 hours0.1%...

, and Rhino Linings

Rhino Linings

Rhino Linings is a privately-held corporation founded in 1988 that manufactures protective polyurea and polyurethane coatings. The company is primarily known as the consumer favorite and brand name leader in truck bed liners. The company is based in San Diego, California...

to protect against airborne debris.

External links

US Soldiers show off Hillbilly Armor – Video clip from the film Gunner Palace
Gunner Palace
Gunner Palace is a 2004 documentary film by American documentary filmmaker Michael Tucker, which had a limited release in the United States on March 4, 2005. The film was an account of the complex realities of the situation in Iraq during 2003–2004 amidst the Iraqi insurgency not seen on the...

(2005)
Hillbilly Armor – Discussion thread at Glock Talk Forums

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

World War I

World War II

Vietnam

Iraq

Military-supplied "up-armour"

Rumsfeld questioning incident

Aftermath

Libya

Non-military use

See also

External links