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CABO 500 Announces 2010 Plans

Dateline Cabo San Lucas Mexico! From the warm, sandy shores of the Jet-Setter Paradise of Mexico, the CABO 500 Team announced earlier this morning, all of their racing plans for 2010. The local Dos Mares race has teamed with the Mexican 1000 and any real Baja racer or race dreamer, who wants some of that Baja Glory, CLICK HERE!

M-ATV The Real DESERT WAR hasn't even started yet. Marjah marks the begining of Americas Desert War. Off-Road1.com Military Series

Off-Road 1.com Third in a Series

Military Off-Road

The latest armored vehicles aimed at shielding troops from roadside bombs are so maneuverable off roads that they give U.S. troops an offensive advantage as they prepare for major operations against insurgents this spring, a Marine general running the vehicle program says.

The speed and maneuverability of the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles transform it “from simply a means of transportation to an offensive capability,” Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said.

There are about 300 of the all-terrain MRAPs being used in combat, Brogan said. Military leaders seek 6,000 more of the vehicles to protect troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Last year, the number of IEDs planted by insurgents more than doubled to nearly 8,000.

The ability to travel off-road is critical in Afghanistan. The country is about the size of Texas and has rugged terrain and few paved routes. Standard MRAP trucks, which have a high center of gravity and weigh more than 30,000 pounds, have been confined mostly to the roads that do exist.

Lack of mobility makes MRAPs and other heavier vehicles easier to target for insurgents, Brogan says. Better mobility was a key requirement for the new truck.

“This vehicle offers the ability that the baseline MRAPs didn’t, namely the ability to get off-road and maneuver,” Brogan said. “That makes the targeting exponentially more difficult for the bad guys.”

The vehicle enables troops to stay unpredictable and confound insurgents, says Dakota Wood, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“As long as you have to travel on roads, you make yourself an easier target,” Wood said. “If you broaden your options on where you can go, that’s good for you.”

MRAPs have proved far safer in bomb blasts in Afghanistan than any other vehicle. Troops are “tens of times” more likely to be wounded or killed in other vehicles in an IED attack, according to the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization.



Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate panel Tuesday that IEDs are “absolutely the worst killer and maimer of our troops.” He said MRAPs made “a huge difference” in limiting the carnage from IEDs.

Starting this month, 500 to 1,000 new MRAPs will begin arriving per month in Afghanistan, Gates told senators.

There are more than 70,000 U.S. service members in Afghanistan, and about 100,000 will be there later this year as part of the escalation ordered by President Obama. There may be the need for 4,000 more MRAPs, Brogan said. The final number will be determined by the Pentagon and combat commanders.

It takes about 14 hours for Oshkosh Defense, the truck’s maker, to produce the vehicle on its assembly lines in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Brogan said. The company is about 300 trucks ahead of schedule, he said.

It’s an expensive effort. The trucks cost about $1 million apiece. Demand for them requires that each is flown in by cargo jet. It costs more than $150,000 to fly each one aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo jet or $140,000 aboard a commercial flight. By spring, the Pentagon hopes to have enough of the trucks in Afghanistan to begin sending them by ship, a slower but cheaper alternative to flying, Brogan said.



Oshkosh Corporation, maker of the MRAP, announced today that its Defense division received an award valued at more than $84 million from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) to supply more than 625 add-on armor kits for the MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV).

Under the delivery order, Oshkosh will provide explosively formed penetrator (EFP) protection kits for the M-ATV. Delivery of the kits is expected to begin in April 2010 and be completed by the end of August 2010. The Oshkosh-supplied kits will include EFP armor, base door armor and a door-assist mechanism. To date, Oshkosh has received awards valued at more than $4 billion to deliver 6,619 M-ATVs, as well as spare parts kits and aftermarket in-theater support.

The advanced armor system solution for the base Oshkosh M-ATV, prior to installation of EFP kits, has been battle-tested on more than 5,000 legacy MRAPs and thousands of Oshkosh(R) Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) Armored Cabs already in theater. Incorporation of the Oshkosh-patented TAK-4(R) independent suspension system allows the M-ATV to accept add-on armor while maintaining its agile maneuverability and a full payload capacity of up to 4,000 pounds.

In addition to exceptional survivability, the M-ATV delivers superior off-road mobility for Afghanistan's harsh mountainous terrain and unimproved roads. The TAK-4 system, which has undergone more than 500,000 miles of government testing, gives the vehicle a 70 percent off-road profile capability and 16 inches of independent wheel travel to overcome obstacles and rugged environments.

Existing Oshkosh facilities have the capacity, highly skilled workforce and proven manufacturing capability to deliver this M-ATV order and all other Defense program orders, including the U.S. Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), as well as any surges in production.

About Oshkosh Defense

Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, is an industry-leading global designer and manufacturer of tactical military trucks and armored wheeled vehicles, delivering a full product line of conventional and hybrid vehicles, advanced armor options, proprietary suspensions and vehicles with payloads that can exceed 70 tons. Oshkosh Defense provides a global service and supply network including full life-cycle support and remanufacturing, and its vehicles are recognized the world over for superior performance, reliability and protection. For more information, visit www.oshkoshdefense.com.

MRAP MINE RESISTANT AMBUSH PROTECT VEHICLE
by mleconte

About Oshkosh Corporation

Oshkosh Corporation is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialty access equipment, commercial, fire & emergency and military vehicles and vehicle bodies. Oshkosh Corp. manufactures, distributes and services products under the brands of Oshkosh(R), JLG(R), Pierce(R), McNeilus(R), Medtec(R), Jerr-Dan(R), Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles, Frontline(TM), SMIT(TM), CON-E-CO(R), London(R) and IMT(R). Oshkosh products are valued worldwide in businesses where high quality, superior performance, rugged reliability and long-term value are paramount. For more information, log on to www.oshkoshcorporation.com.

The Looming Sword

The enemy are digging in ahead of a major NATO operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, in one of the biggest offensives in the eight-year-old war.

U.S. Marines are set to launch an operation within days to take Marjah, an area of lush farmland criss-crossed by canals in the centre of Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.

The offensive will be the first major show of force since President Barack Obama ordered in 30,000 extra troops.

The operation has been flagged in advance in the hope militants will give up the fight in what commanders say is the last big Taliban enclave in the province.

"It has to do with letting people know what's coming in the hope that the hardcore Taliban, or a lot of the Taliban, will simply leave, and maybe there will be less of a fight," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Turkey on Saturday.

But some of the villagers escaping Marjah in fear of their lives said fighters are digging in rather than fleeing.

"The Taliban are not going to leave Marjah. We have seen them preparing themselves. They are bringing in people and weapons. We know there is going to be a big fight," said Abdul Manan, a man from Marjah who had fled to Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah.

"The Taliban are very active in Marjah. They are planting mines there and in the surrounding areas," said villager Abdul Khaleq after arriving in Lashkar Gah with his family.

The United States and its allies, facing dwindling public support for the war, are hoping a big military push will convince the Taliban to accept a peace deal.

But U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke dismissed speculation Washington, which wants to start drawing down troops in 2011, was already holding talks with the Taliban.

"... I want to state very clearly that our nation is not involved in any direct contacts with the Taliban," he told reporters at a security conference in Munich, Germany.

Holbrooke said in principle negotiations and military operations could run in parallel, citing as examples the efforts to end the Vietnam war and the conflict in former Yugoslavia.

"But it must go hand in hand with security success. It is not an alternative to the military campaign. It requires military success to make progress."



"THE WRATH OF THE AMERICANS"

The Taliban have stepped up their fight against foreign troops in recent years, although they have largely shied away from face-to-face combat, relying instead on homemade bombs.

But Abdullah Nasrat, a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district where Marjah is located, told Reuters by telephone there were some 2,000 insurgents there ready to fight to the death.

"We are well prepared and will fight until the end. We don't have sophisticated weapons like the Americans with tanks and airplanes, but we have Islamic zeal. That is the power we have to fight against the infidels," he said.

Around 100 families have fled Marjah and surrounding areas, seeking refuge in Lashkar Gah over the last week, the provincial governor's spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said. Afghan families average around six members.

"On the government side, we are ready to help these people. We are ready to help up to 50,000 displaced people," he said, adding there was a possibility of more people fleeing. Those who fled said they feared for their lives.

"We know that the wrath of the Americans is coming upon us. We left Marjah to save our lives and our families' lives," the villager, Khaleq, said. Now that NATO has the ability and possibly the will, to finish off the Afghan-Pakistani terror connection, "others" are rushing to possibly execute a different theater first strike.


February 11 Threat on Doorstep

However, the Afghanistan operations could take a backseat to the Iranian threats now foreshadowing the recent military hardware moves in the Middle East. Is the NATO Afghanistan planned moves, a chance for "others" to first strike-attack Israel?

What does Iran mean in its recent, "February 11 Punch To (At) The West"? The secret transfer of mobile, solid-fueled, surface-to-surface Syrian-made Fateh-110 (range 250km) missile to Hizballah sparked the US prediction Friday, February 5, that cross-border arms smuggling from Syria into Lebanon outside state control was "very dangerous" and "paved the way to war".

Iranian and military sources report the new war threats from Damascus are backed by massive Iranian airlifts for boosting Syria's missile arsenal. Fresh supplies have also reached Hizballah and Hamas. Syrian war rhetoric was fanned by the delivery of 100 new medium-range surface-to-surface missiles from Iran. The Syrian foreign minister publicly confirmed disclosures in December, of a secret mutual defense pact binding Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas.

Military sources report that not only were Syrian leaders beating war drums, but Egyptian military sources reported that Israel with US assistance has for weeks been charting Persian Gulf waters and northern Iraqi routes into Iran in preparation for an Israeli attack on Irans nuclear facilities.

Has China "green lighted" its 'surrogates' to push for a blow against the west for its recent arms sales disclosures to Taiwan? Has a breach for a new Desert War opened? Who might strike first now?

Mr. X

Off-Road1.com Military Series

First Baja Pre-Runner Turns 100 Years Young! SPECIAL 100 Off-Road Years Find!

UPDATED!

First Baja Mexico pre-runner turns 100 this year, 2010.

Re-introducing the HUNT SPECIAL!

2010 is a special year for Baja California and Mexico. It's also the year Baja Off-Road Racing fans can celebrate the origins of the sport, with the re-introduction of the REAL Granddaddy of them all, the 1910 Hunt Special!



William H. Hunt and his brother Clarence were machinists in National City, California, located halfway between San Diego and the Mexican border, in San Diego's 'south county or south bay'.

Following a visit from a representative of the Ford Motor Company in 1904, they became the first automobile dealers in town. Over the next two years the brothers only sold one car, but they created a lively repair business among other ventures.

They also hired themselves out as chauffeur/mechanics for special trips.

Anyone in the 'auto-business' or anyone who owned an 'auto' was called an 'autoist', a term from the turn of the century. In this service, Arnie Babcock, son of the man who had built the Hotel Del Coronado (who lived on his cattle ranch 40 miles south of Ensenada, Mexico) contacted Clarence Hunt.

Arnie's many meetings and doctor appointments in San Diego (he had contracted tuberculosis) were taking a toll on his autos, even with Clarence in the drivers seat.

The wagon roads between San Diego and Ensenada were very rough and kept Arnie's cars in the Hunt brothers' shop. Arnie Babcock commissioned the building of a car that could perform over the tough stretches of wagon roads and those long stretches of off-road conditions so common at the turn of the century.

Considering these were the first mechanized wagons or 'autos' in Baja Mexico, the wagon roads were the only roads. The rest of the territory at the time was, off-road. Better yet, non-road conditions.

The amazing machine developed back in those old days, is called the Hunt Special (1910) and nicknamed 'Alkali Ike'. This nickname came from its incredible performance in those long stretches of desert or inhospitable stretches of roadless ramblings. And the dust left on the 'special' after those long desert trips.

Babcock commissioned the build in 1908 for $16,000. At the time, a Ford Model A was selling for $6,000. More great details LOADING>>>

It has a powerful engine, a double chain drive, a 60 inch tread (the width of the ruts in the roads), amazing 43 inch wheels/tires and an incredible 18 inch center clearance, for the time. Truly, the Hunt Special is the only "missing link" between the wagons of the wild west and modern desert off-road racing.

Clarence Hunt was killed before it was finished and Babcock succumbed to TB before he ever rode in the car. William Hunt, who lived just three blocks from his business in National City, died in 1974 at the age of 97.

Baja California is now considered one of the toughest off-road racing areas in the world. The Hunt Special was designed for the most challenging driving conditions, survived them all and turns 100 this year, 2010. Unusual on this car is its false hood.

Since Emile Levassor of France had developed an auto with its engine placed vertically in front of the car driving the rear wheels by means of a shaft, European cars had engine compartments out in front of the passenger compartments. You will notice that the engine of this car is underneath the floorboards. Imitating the style of those European cars, the Hunt Special was designed with a hood although the space is virtually unused.

The Hunt Special was originally tested without a rear seat or top. It is currently unknown when these modifications were made.

MORE PICS AND STORY DETAILS LOADING TODAY>>>also on Baja Racing News RADIO LIVE!

The 1910 HUNT SPECIAL is in a private collection in San Diego California. For Special viewing details contact us at Baja Racing News.com for details at the Editors Desk, Gary at safari2002@cox.net

From Those Heady Days:




100 Off-Road Years SPECIAL on
Baja Racing News.com

The COMPLETE 100 Years of Off-Road Series will be available on
Off-Road1.com SOON!

McMillin Racing Wants To Win The Baja Racing 2010 Championship Real Bad

Gary Newsome, Baja Racing News EXCLUSIVE

How Bad? How Bad does the McMillin Team WANT to be called the 'KING OF BAJA', to take the Championship this year? BAD! REAL BAD!

The McMillin Racing Team is testing in San Felipe, Baja Mexico, months ahead of the scheduled Baja 250 in March. Most teams won't start testing until one week ahead of the race.



McMillin is focusing on the KING OF BAJA Championship so much, the team is skipping races, that they won last year! Andy was quoted on January 27 as stating, "We won't be racing in the MINT 400, that we won last year, we won't be there at all".

Andy intimated this morning, "Have you seen those whoops in San Felipe off the start? I would say 3-4 feet deep square edged monster whoops. Deeper and rougher than Laughlin. Such an awesome course though!", that they have already been given the race course map from Sal Fish.

Please note in the photos, the now unmarked chase trucks and trailers. Clearly the 'Hall Family' crimes have impacted the McMillin Team more than just skipping three whole years of Baja racing, until coming back in the fold, for last years Baja 1000.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST CURRENT UPDATE ON 2010 POINTS DETAILS

CLICK HERE FOR THE HALL FAMILY CRIME DETAILS SHOCKING!!!

More Details LOADING NOW>>>


Baja Racing News.com EXCLUSIVE

What's the Biggest Threat To Race Fans in Baja? Getting Struck by Racers!

KILLED BY RACERS

Numerous Baja racing fanatics are killed every year. They are killed by the racers they are following out on the course. What are the penalties to the racer? Who takes care of the victims? Be prepared for this story! You will be shocked! LOADING NOW>>>

Off-Road 1 Military Off-Road Report Light Strike Vehicle

Off-Road1.com Miltary Vehicle Series


Landmine’s vehicle mode is based on that of a real Desert Patrol Vehicle (DPV) lightweight scout, manufactured by Chenowth Racing Products, Inc. It is an off-road sandrail vehicle designed for hit-and-run tactics, as well as fast reconnaissance behind enemy lines, and it is favored by United States special operations units for its light weight, speed, easy maintenance, and reliability.

The DPV was later surpassed by the Light Strike Vehicle (LSV), also manufactured by Chenowth. Being a sandrail vehicle means that the DPV does not carry protection for the three occupants (driver, passenger gunner, and top gunner) from small-arms fire, but does protect them from high-speed and roll-over accidents. Today, they are designed to carry a wide variety of light weapons, typically one M2 Browning .50cal machine gun, two 7.62mm M60 machine guns, or two AT4 anti-armor launchers. On the other hand, Chenowth is also well-known publicly for producing a wide variety of sandrail vehicles similar to the DPV with different capacities in weight, engine performance, and cargo & passenger capacity for both sport and private use. Off-Road1.com