JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan – It's no secret that the U.S. military's fleet of hulking armored vehicles is poorly suited for Afghanistan's primitive roads: The Department of Defense is currently rushing to field an "lite" that can handle the country's primitive terrain while providing a high level of protection for troops.

After a week or two of riding in various Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), it's become much more clear to me why the requirement is so urgent. More than just a rollover risk, the current MRAP designs really do limit mobility. Want to drive down that village street? Better make sure it's not too narrow. Want to visit that rural polling station? Might have to find a different way to get there. (Last week, Oshkosh Corp. received a billion-dollar order for an additional 1,700 of the trucks, dubbed the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle All Terrain Vehicle, or M-ATV.)

Sometimes, getting there can mean trading protection for mobility. On a recent visit to an Afghan National Police station in Jabal Saraj, on the border between Kapisa and Parwan Provinces, 1st Lt. Brian Gulden discussed a request to buy motorcycles for local cops to cover more remote districts ahead of the presidential elections. "We were able to see the polling sites and we feel the security is pretty good," Gulden said. "But there a few we can’t get to because the trucks are too big."

Col. Azim, the ANP commander, added: "The motorcycles are really urgent for us."

Clearly, this situation requires a work-around: In this case, Afghan police on foot or in pickup trucks can cover some of the more remote places that are off-limits to armored trucks. But there's also a public-relations (or, in milspeak, "information operations") dimension to keeping troops zipped up in the million-dollar trucks. When a convoy of MRAPs rolls up to a village to drop off some humanitarian aid, for instance, the effect can still be a little intimidating.

I'm not the first, of course, to comment on the advantages of working outside the protective cocoon of armored vehicles. In the latest issue of Army Times, Sean Naylor has a great piece about a small band of soldiers operating from a remote outpost in Zabul province. He quotes a squad leader, Staff Sgt. Danieto Bacchus, who says that combat vehicles are “a magnet for trouble” in Afghanistan. “What I like about the mission here is the walking," Bacchus tells Naylor. "The freedom of movement of being able to walk anywhere ... just my rucksack, my radio and my guys that I’ve got to worry about.”

[PHOTO: Nathan Hodge]

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