6/21/2005
More equipment difficulties
''Most infantry, logistics, and security battalions require approximately twice the number of .50-caliber machine guns and more M240G and MK19 machine guns than they would normally possess," according to the 40-page report, entitled ''Marine Corps Ground Equipment in Iraq."
The Marine Corps are seriously undersupplied. This isn't stopping them from winning battles, or dominating the opposition each and every time they take the field, it is almost certainly contributing to more casualties than would be the case if the they were properly supplied. Among the problems are over one thousand Humvees that are not uparmored. The Humvees that are armored are requiring much higher maintenance because they were never designed to carry the armor in the first place. Tanks and other vehicles are past their designed life time and rapidly in need of replacement. The report which stretches to about forty pages estimates that as little as thirty-nine percent of marine equipment could may be battle ready by 2008. This is not the first, nor will it be the last equipment issue are troops are to be tested with.
