I have not yet worked with the MRAP so I do not have first hand knowledge of them. What I do know is that the biggest killer among IEDs in Iraq is the underbody explosion. EFPs get a lot of attention because they are relatively sophisticated and are difficult to defend against because of their ability to penetrate a lot of armor. Underbody attacks, on the other hand, are very unsophisticated, basically a whole lot of boom buried under the road. The thing is an EFP is a linear weapon. The spall that it generates when it penetrates can seriously injure or kill but often it takes a direct hit to kill, meaning that it can kill one or more people in the vehicle depending on seating and the angle of the strike. Even a direct hit can be survivable depending on where it hits and who is seated nearby. Underbody attacks are not at all sophisticated, relying on pure brute force to pulverize the vehicle and its contents. Underbody attacks are often not survivable and will generally kill everyone on the vehicle rather than just the unlucky ones seated in the way. As far as I can see the MRAP was designed to answer that problem and mostly that problem alone. I am simply not sure that they were really considering all the other variables that have been discussed on this board so far. I don't think that they were really thinking about how these would fare in a head to head conventional fight. I suspect that they were concerned with how these will fare in this fight, right here, right now. As far as I can tell, these things are just about perfect for that role.

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