The mindset for protection

摘要

The UK Secretary of State for Defence, John Hutton, announced the postponement of the FRES Utility Variant (UV), as well as the prioritisation of the FRES Scout Variant in November 2008. He cited current operational requirements and the £700m already spent on Protected Patrol Vehicles (PPVs), bought for troops in Afghanistan through the Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) funding mechanism, as justification.rnIn April 2009, US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announced the cancellation of the manned vehicles element of the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS). His reasoning? That the FCS vehicle designs did not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also did not incorporate the highly successful, multi-billion dollar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle programme.