Plan calls for more armor on new combat vehicles

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007 | by Tom Vanden Brook

QUANTICO, Va. -- The Marine general in charge of the program to send new armored vehicles to Iraq says the Pentagon has developed "a solution" to protect the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks, or MRAPs, from the deadliest type of armor-piercing roadside bomb, called explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs.

The Pentagon's method for combating EFPs involves adding armor to the sides of MRAPs, Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said in an interview with USA TODAY. The armor is a modified version of what the military calls Frag Kit 6, Brogan said. "I have a solution for EFPs, and I'm going to put it on the trucks I've already bought," Brogan said.

The MRAP's V-shaped hull and raised chassis help protect troops inside the vehicle from the force of makeshift bombs known...