Troops going to Iraq face shortage of supplies

January 30, 2007
Troops going to Iraq face shortage of supplies

Trucks are in particularly short supply. For example, the Army would need 1,500 specially outfitted - known as "up-armored" - 2 1/2-ton and five-ton trucks in Iraq for the incoming units, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army's deputy chief of staff for force development.

"We don't have the (armor) kits and we don't have the trucks," Speakes said in an interview. He said it will take the Army months, probably until summer, to supply and outfit the additional trucks.

Still, U.S. commanders privately expressed doubts that Iraq-bound units would receive a full complement of Humvees. "It's inevitable that that has to happen, unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky," one senior Army official said of the feared shortfall.