SKIRMISHER

You gotta love the US Army. Upon realizing their thickly armored humvees were no match for the IEDs of those pesky, smelly Iraqi insurgents, they’ve made a complete about-face by building nonmetal humvees made of “fiberglass, balsa wood, foam and carbon reinforcements, all held together with resin.” Somebody tipped us that soldiers might also begin wearing ballet suits and carrying fairy wands to kill enemies, but that’s just silly.

The Army said Tuesday it will begin testing a composite, nonmetal Humvee utility vehicle that is 900 pounds lighter than its conventional counterpart so it can carry extra armor to better protect soldiers against roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The prototype vehicle’s frame and body is made of nonmetal composites — a combination of fiberglass, balsa wood, foam and carbon reinforcements all held together with resin.

The body of the tan composite prototype has a sandpaper feel. The fenders are pliable and can be easily bent by hand, flipping back into place when released.

“We can put the strength where we need it,” said Steven Lockard, president and CEO of TPI Composites Inc., which built the prototype.

The chassis, for example, has extra carbon for added strength and stiffness, while other composite parts of the vehicle are lighter and more pliable, he said.

“Every pound of weight we save, that weight is being added back to the vehicle in armor and mine-blast protection,” Lockard said.

Roadside bombs are the No. 1 killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. A conventional Humvee weighs between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that follows military issues, said composite vehicles would have some advantages, but will likely cost more to make. And he said the soldiers would have to get accustomed to using them in combat zones.

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