Yes, DHS really does have MRAPs (Updated)

  Yes, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is 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 16 brand semi-new MRAPs (remember: that acronym stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected). This ...

 

Yes, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is 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 16 brand semi-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 shotgun 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.

 

Yes, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is 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 16 brand semi-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 shotgun 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.

Whether justified by the criminal threat or not, the notion of MRAPs loaded with  "operators" who are tricked out in what used to be special-ops gear performing law-enforcement duties – like serving a warrant — seems a little creepy. Wouldn’t the normal armored trucks that SWAT teams have used for the last 30 years cut it?

While law-enforcement agencies have a long history of buying military surplus gear and even borrowing military tactics for special situations, the term MRAP and "operator" immediately conjure images of military operations to subdue insurgencies among local populations during the last decade’s wars.

As one would expect, tales of DHS buying 2,700 MRAPs from the Army (in reality, DHS only has 16, a fleet that it started building around 2008) inflamed the government conspiracy corners of the blogosphere. Just do a quick Google search of the term DHS MRAP and you can see for yourself.

John Reed is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy. He comes to FP after editing Military.com’s publication Defense Tech and working as the associate editor of DoDBuzz. Between 2007 and 2010, he covered major trends in military aviation and the defense industry around the world for Defense News and Inside the Air Force. Before moving to Washington in August 2007, Reed worked in corporate sales and business development for a Swedish IT firm, The Meltwater Group in Mountain View CA, and Philadelphia, PA. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter at the Tracy Press and the Scotts Valley Press-Banner newspapers in California. His first story as a professional reporter involved chasing escaped emus around California’s central valley with Mexican cowboys armed with lassos and local police armed with shotguns. Luckily for the giant birds, the cowboys caught them first and the emus were ok. A New England native, Reed graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a dual degree in international affairs and history.

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