DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks For Service On Streets of the US

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by butcherguy

 

To keep you in line.

Look at the reaction you have from seeing one...

I saw a photo of one, and I saw a video of a very different one. I have yet to actually see one.

My reaction is to question why a government that is, let's just say 'on the brink' of bankruptcy, needs a mine resistant, ambush protected vehicle for domestic use.

Isn't that a valid reaction?

Can you answer that question?

And how much success are they having at 'keeping me in line' with this tactic?

this hi tech killing machines for what?????????

Killing RIOT!!!!!!

reply to post by Hopechest

Since you hadn't been out to look this up, given your question, I took a few moments. It wasn't much, really.

The Department of Homeland Security has acquired over 2,700 military-style, mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles for use inside the U.S., according to reports from RT.

The vehicle has been modified for use with the DHS Special Response Team — specially trained, fully armored agents dispatched during the most severe and high risk situations, according to WOAI.

"[The vehicle] is used in the execution of high-risk warrants — including drug trafficking, smuggling, and contraband," Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for DHS, told Business Insider.

Source

This is from a straight forward foreign policy magazine here,

Yes, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is now appearing on U.S. streets. This video posted to YouTube shows an officer with the Department of Homeland Security's El Paso Special Response Team showing off one of DHS's brand new MRAPs (remember: that acronym stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected).

This MRAP has been modified to carry "operators" (not officers -- it's as if we're sending SOF teams to serve warrants now) riding shogun on the outside of the vehicle or inside the heavily armored truck while they service "high-risk warrants." Notice the firing ports below the windows, which are thick enough to stop a .50 caliber bullet.

Source

This last one has the photo from the OP, by the look of it. It also has a quick list of specs/dimensions to the MRAP.

Latest Homeland Security Armored Vehicle

I'm not sure if they have nefarious plans in mind, consider it a good 'just in case' thing, or if the explosion of the federal budget as high as 1.5 TRILLION in a single year deficit under this administration (may be higher for 2013) is just fostering a the ultimate 'boys with their toys' climate of ordering whatever people can dream up for their unit or department.

It's probably a bit of all of it...but that isn't really important in my mind. I don't much like the idea of seeing MRAP's on city streets in anything remotely aggressive for roles. Certainly not as a normal thing.

reply to post by butcherguy

Look. If the "government" (ever) needs to quell any kind of "disturbance" or uprising or whatever, they have but to call out the guard and regular army. They have done it in the past and will do it again whether its a storm or a riot or whatever.

Those are real troops with all the military might they need to crush anything they might come up against. They have jets, tanks, attack helicopters and artillery already in every base in every state in the whole country. I don't understand why the focus on a picture of one vehicle?

The big bad wolf is busy right now destroying other entire countries. There doesn't seem to be any kind of issue there, I guess. Just that they might be painting some vehicles?

This is just distraction from the very real issues before the world.

Last reply on this. Turn off the computer and go outside to the beach or mountains or something, Enjoy what little life we are given to enjoy.

I have some more advice for you. If you hear some sounds of shooting and explosions in the distance some day, I would get moving in the opposite direction.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


in the picture

between the shock and the tire,
there is a cylinder on the axle.

that is the brake chamber.

"air brakes"

a couple of well placed shots to that chamber, and all the air will be dumped.

no air= sitting duck.

these chambers are designed with a safety mechanism that automatically engages the brakes when air pressure drops.

you have to have air to release the brakes.

no worries, just fancy toys to waste our labor on...



oops didn't mean to reply to hacker...

Thermite, there is no tank the can't be killed with a well placed homemade grenade.It's very easy to make and use.
Don't be afraid of DHS they cannot counter combat experience.

I'm not sure if this is a big deal. Our Sheriff's Department recently got an armored vehicle (a BearCat). They called the news out with them, and like a new toy, they took it out on a drug bust. The Anchorette was fawning over it ("It's so big!" ) and the Sheriff was smiling like an idiot as he stood in a heroic pose shouting into a megaphone at the house of some meth head.

He was going on about how this guy was caught with a gun before and it could be dangerous, and the news people should cower behind the vehicle. Some methhead and his old lady got raddled out of their daze and surrendered without incident. Haven't heard of it since.

Also, when I was in Arizona the local Sheriff had some variant of a Cadillac Commando (IIRC). They did the same routine, used it on a couple of busts, then it just sat in the vehicle lot. I used to drive past it going to town and watched it collect dirt.

Police need big boy toys too. Why should you have to join the military to crash through a persons door, in a far away land, as they scream in some alien tongue when you can just get the same rush at home?

Why are there two topics about this being allowed on ATS at the same time? It divides us as a community.

This same topic is being discussed and seen under the "ribbon" (that displays firehose stuff).

Current ATS Discussion

I have no idea why the mods haven't merged these two discussions. They both are popular and contain the same core?

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Was wondering the same thing. There are actually two other threads. Both have the same title even. One was started the exact same time as mine, the other an hour later.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
The vehicle has been modified for use with the DHS Special Response Team — specially trained, fully armored agents dispatched during the most severe and high risk situations, according to WOAI.

Since DHS is receiving thousands of these vehicles, then clearly they aren't being used by elite teams as is the claim.

reply to post by METACOMET

That's one possibility. The other is very simply to start asking how many 'elite' teams they actually have in operation now. We hear about them popping up at rail stations, road side checkpoints, truck scales and other places out of the ordinary and all over the nation. Perhaps there are more than we've appreciated having built up around us?

An agency by agency inventory done for the year 2000 shows the federal government owning more than 602,000 cars, trucks and vans. According to the Office of Management and Budget, that's one vehicle for every three federal employees.

"You look across these numbers and clearly we've got some excess going on we need to root out," said OMB Director Mitch Daniels.

Source

I don't think that's even counting the armor and specialized enforcement "wagons" for lack of a better word on some of the stuff they have in the enforcement agencies like these are for.

We may also be over thinking the whole thing by trying to place meaning to the numbers at all. In trucking, there are many areas around the country I went by like White Sands Missile Range where all kinds of armored vehicles are lined up in the middle of nowhere, by the dozens. They just sit there, year after year. Some places, it's more like hundreds. Uncle Sammy buys things to GROSS EXCESS sometimes, I think, because only Uncle Sammy can and get away with it. Maybe the MRAP manufacturer is in a favored Congressman's district, too.

Perhaps now, not only can every agency from Social Security to the IRS have 12 gauge riot guns, they can have a local armored car nearby to really get those media shots if they get a raid worth calling it out for. It could be just that simple, I suppose.

Originally posted by Hopechest
reply to post by IceHappy

 

Security always should come first for a nation.

Unfortunate but its the world we live in.

This is the security we're looking for!

Great thread, folks. I just popped in because I was also curious about these armoured cars and what they might be used for?

I know nothing about these but I thought I would relay something I read the other day on the 1.6 billion hollow points.
This huge ammo buy-up by DHS was being discussed on a gun board and one person said all these branch agencies of DHS would need a lot of extra ammo for target practise. At that point an ex-military man mentioned that no one uses hollow points for target practise. They use FMJ [full metal jacket] Maybe someone here who's ex-military can verify or refute, because I'm sure not military. Haven't seen a haircut since 71
Keep it light. We'll figure it out eventually.
Sure is a lot of weird stuff happening.

reply to post by Aircooled



Standard ball ammo is used for practice. Hollow points are too expensive for target practise, and are meant for field use.

Every time i see a big government purchase like this my first instinct is to find out how much the manufacturer has donated to Washington politicians.

I may be reading this wrong, but it appears to me that Navistar has spent a record amount on buying Washington favors in 2012.

Is NAVISTAR INC. GOOD GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE the same Navistar? They are listed as truck & trailer manufacturers, so it seems so.

If this story is true then they certainly expect something down the road here will lead to large scale civil unrest.

Start listening at 31:10, kind of freaky when you consider the context of this thread.

bring it, when the times comes we will win. there cant be any other outcome

reply to post by Logarock


FM 3-39.40 titled Internment and Resettlement Operations, dated Feb 2010. You will find all sorts of goodies, from the use of snipers to pick out agitators in a crowd, to the layout and structure of camps. Civil unrest is almost certainly going to happen at some point in the very near future, and contingency plans have already been drawn up to deal with them.

PDF

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Here are some more numbers from the 2010 Fleet Report from Data.gov
explore.data.gov...



Here are some pretty staggering numbers:
- The U.S. Government owns or leases 662,154 vehicles. (That’s about a vehicle for 1 out of 3 federal workers)
- We own 456,349 and we lead the rest through commercial leases or the GSA inventory.
- The total cost of all of these vehicles is (brace yourself) $4,593,273,213
- These vehicles drove 5,197,362,346 miles in 2010 – That’s an average of 7,849 miles per car!
- The U.S. Post Office accounts for 211,871 of these vehicles or 31% of the fleet and 24% of all the miles driven in 2010
- The military accounts for 197,477 or 29% of the fleet and 30% of the 2010 miles
- The next largest fleet operators (as you might expect) are: Homeland Security (8%), Dept. of Justice (6%), and the Dept. of Agriculture (6%)

The government needs vehicles for sure, but this is clearly excess.