House Democrat urges Pentagon to use armored personel carriers

House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., has asked the Pentagon to consider using existing M-113 armored personnel carriers to protect forces in Iraq while troops await the delivery of armored Humvees.

In a Monday letter to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers, Skelton said that while light weight Humvees in Iraq struggle under the weight of add-on armor, the M-113 chassis easily can accommodate such a burden without causing significant maintenance problems. Skelton asked Myers to consider using the 700 M-113s the Army is speculated to have in Kuwait.

Skelton acknowledged that the M-113 has its drawbacks -- without additional armor, a new M-113 could prove useless against improvised explosive devices like those used by insurgents in Iraq. But an armored M-113 could "certainly provide better protection than soft-skinned vehicles" like light-weight Humvees, Skelton wrote, adding that they "provide no protection at all."

Questions about whether the Defense Department is adequately protecting soldiers in Iraq have been raised since a soldier last week asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why troops must dig through landfills for pieces of scrap metal to armor their vehicles. The Pentagon is increasing armored Humvee production and sending more add-on armor kits to Iraq.

Officials at Army Materiel Command say all prepositioned M-113s in Kuwait are in use. But Skelton's letter might prompt Pentagon leaders to rethink assumptions on how to protect soldiers and to discourage the Army from discounting Cold-War era hardware that could be adapted to meet threats posed by the Iraq insurgency.

Skelton noted that the M-113, when armed with multiple machine guns behind gun shields proved an effective vehicle during the Vietnam War against enemy forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.

Critics of the M-113 contend that armoring it to withstand attacks by roadside bombs is no shortcut to added force protection in Iraq. Supporters say the M-113 could prove less costly than producing more Humvees. But they add that the Pentagon might ignore that approach because of its fixation with transforming the Army into a lighter, faster force with new hardware like the Stryker fighting vehicle.

In a statement issued Tuesday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., did not directly address the M-113 idea but said Skelton "works non-stop to make sure our troops get what they need. Currently, we need to provide as much armor to the field as possible and we support his efforts."