Ampersand's MaxxPro MRAP

For some reason, the US military does not learn the lessons of previous conflicts very well, especially if they are not directly involved. This results in a general flail-ex where folks are blamed and there is a bit of a rush to find a fix. Meanwhile, soldiers become casualties.

Such is the case with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite multiple historical precedent about wars in this part of the world, the US and its coalition went into as if they were fighting a European war. Then they were surprised when an insurgency erupted and now it wasn't an army they were facing with modern weapons, but insurgents using improvised weapons. These were generally deployed as mines and when a vehicle ran over it or near it: BOOM. Despite an effort to uparmor softskin vehicles, the flat bottoms of these vehicles simply opened up like a tin can.

What was needed was a vehicle that was designed with a lot of armor that would shape the blast away from the bottom of the vehicle. Thus the MRAP or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. The South Africans could have told them this was coming as they had dealt with pretty much the same thing during the last years of apartheid and developed vehicles to deal with it. V bottom vehicles with most of the armor on the bottom.

In the US several companies submitted plans, some in cooperation with South African corporations who had dealt with this. This book covers those developed predominantly by Navistar and so the MaxxPro series was born. These eventually grew to several different types including a standard, heavier and larger vehicle and a lighter vehicle as well as a tow truck.

As part of the very popular visual history series, Ampersand fully covers the history and variations of this series of vehicles. It also includes all the various modifications and updates. There are tons of superb color photos and lots of close-ups of the many external features. I found it interesting that there were not any dedicated interior images other than what you could glimpse through open doors, but perhaps it was too difficult to get those.

The vast majority of the images are from the DoD and so you get a considerable number of photos of the vehicles in country. The history section at the beginning of the book is well done and provides a great read and something that gets modeler's interested in reproducing one. Enthusiasts will also find the book to be very helpful  one they will want on their shelves. Highly recommended.

 August 2016

Review copy courtesy Ampersand Publishing. Get yours today at this link.

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