As many experts are here with their views I may differ from views of many. The pick up trucks are still the most affordable vehicles especially on rough roads. However their protection level can be increased along with overall survivability. Some suggestions are installation of armored plates on sides and on floor, it may save many lives. Meanwhile though it can't be made well protected like MRAPs still can save lives and can still complete it's purpose.
The MRAPS shall prove to nightmare for Pak as they are more fuel guzzling as well as require high maintenance. As many do not know that PA has minimized use of old vehicles with higher fuel consumption.
This forum barely has any experts. Only a few that actually have sources behind them. Mostly just people giving opinions on things they don’t understand because they want them to be ideal (like people saying we should Buy F-22 raptors instead of F-16s)
PA has plenty Of MRAPS, enough for use in Operational areas, I’ve seen them deployed in Waziristan and even in SWAT around 2016 after all the operations there had ended. They were Used when needed, and there is no fuel shortage regarding them because we don’t need a fleet of thousands, only a few hundred. I don’t know how you came to that conclusion.
The reason many videos, pictures and incidents don’t show them anywhere is because they came pretty late, and you can’t just get something and put it right into action, you need to train the men to use and tell them how it works before it can be sent in and used effectively. Especially the JERV type MRAPS.
If Pakistan had them as early as 2009 they would definitely have been pushed into more active service. The loss of life isn’t worth the money in petrol for the PA. Because a dozen soldiers take a lot of time and money to train. And that is taken into account. That’s why soldiers aren’t expendable unlike Hollywood makes it seem. As casualties to IEDs increased PA also adopted other methods of removing and detecting them, they learned with time. An OP that would have been conducted in 2016 would Use MRAPS with jammers and the whole place would be checked for IEDs before advancing. A similar one in 2007 would start with a vehicle getting blown up by an IED.
This way or that way. We had and have sufficient amount of MRAPs to conduct Patrols in Northern side and Balochistan. The number gonna increase. We have ordered 160 of these which we gonna get..
Wikipedia is a terrible source. It’s hard to pinpoint the number of MRAPS in Pakistani service, but SIPRI trade records would be your best bet, and The last time I checked (albeit it’s been quite a while). They numbered 100+.
So yes, we definitely have enough for patrols up there, but they came In pretty late.
Baluchistan maybe the place where they get to see good use now. But there’s not many patrols there, just operations when they receive a tip off or spot activity and such.
My bs picking radar is detecting a heck of an activity, scramble! scramble! scramble!
What’s that supposed to mean? I simply stated that we had to use these things as transports back when WoT started because we had no other options and couldn’t buy anything else. We used Trucks and hiluxs. what single ounce of BS is present in that factual sentence?
We don't have numbers,people are still riding Toyotas.
MRAPS are not normal transport meant to be used all the time, only in a forward patrol or an OP in an Hot area like 2009 swat or 2014 waziristan was, and yeah back then we didn’t have enough or any of these. Now the fighting there is finished, IEDs are removed, so of course they’ll use the Hiluxs. And for normal transport around cantonments and cities. They’re still the most cost effective option. Even the US army uses Humvees for normal transport, and No, Humvees have no additional armor at all unless bolted on. They are as unprotected from IEDS as a hilux, that’s why the USA got MRAPS in the first place.
There is a decent number of Dragoon and Mohafiz vehicles used by our military for patrolling (They’re widely used around Rawalpindi and HIT near taxila, plus other cantonments, but these are what I get to see, I suppose the Dragoons came too late to be used in WoT). And PA does seem to have an interest in more wheeled APCs and Armored transports, but you know how slow our military is with new inductions due to cost and availability.
In short; for normal usage. These are the most cost effective and can’t be put out of service, they’re essential.
And to answer your earlier question, Its stated above by another member that around 2013-14 Pakistan Had about 50 MRAPS delivered,I think that’s correct because the reference is SIPRI, but it takes time to train soldiers on it, can’t directly be sent into combat.
It’s not 2014 anymore and Pakistan has more, SIPRI trade records should show a more believable figured (I don’t believe it’s 360 like Wikipedia says, maybe a hundred something)
The USA didn’t deliver them as soon as Pakistan wanted, it took quite some time.
Also an interesting thing, I don’t know if many of you remember, but Pakistan also designed its own MRAP back in the day before it got some from the USA. It was named Burraq. Search it up, you’ll find some pictures and info on it. Quite interesting.