MRAPs: Surplus Cut Up for Scrap in Afghanistan

Photo SPC Andrew Baker (18 March 2013)

MRAPs have been a life saver in both Iraq and Afghanistan. When it was finally realized (it took a while) that troops needed protection from IEDs as they traveled the roads in the two war zones Pentagon move quickly to build and field these protective vehicles. Now that we are out of Iraq and reducing troop numbers in Afghanistan there are a lot of surplus MRAPs in the inventory. Many of these MRAPs are still located in Afghanistan. It costs on average about $350,000 to ship a MRAP to the states and then to rebuild it to specifications. Once that is done it needs a home but there are too many already in the states. So many are being destroyed in Afghanistan - at a cost of $12,000 each - and the scrap metal is being sold to Afghan businessmen who will put the metal to other uses. One might think it a good idea to hand over to the Afghans for the Afghan National Army. However, the Afghans have proven themselves incapable of maintaining their fleet of Ranger pickup trucks; and they would certainly waste a lot of time, effort, and money in trying to keep a complicated vehicle like a MRAP up and running. Read more in "From MRAP to scrap: U.S. military chops up $1-million vehicles", Stars and Stripes, December 27, 2013.