This message was received today from HQ, US Army (G8) which I’d frankly never heard of before, but is apparently the Comptroller of the Army, which I suppose makes that office the one that can’t count jeeps, tanks, towels and HalliCheneyBurton Contracts.

Equipping the Plus-Up

What is it? As the combat environment in which our Soldiers fight
Continues to change, the requirements for the type of equipment necessary to fight successfully and win also change. As we continue to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army remains focused on force protection to ensure troops involved in the plus-up have everything they need to ensure their safety while achieving the mission.

What is the Army doing? One of our primary force protection
enhancements is the up-armored Medium [*] and Heavy [**] Tactical Wheeled Vehicles (TWV). As of 21 February 2007, there are over 11,900 Heavy and Medium TWVs in Theater with Add-on-Armor (AoA). We kitted another 146 vehicles at home station, prior to
unit deployments, with AoA kits. There are an additional 55 AoA kits available in theater to armor vehicles previously used only on Forward Operating Bases (FOB), bringing fill to 94 percent of requirement. The Theater will re-task organize to ensure units have the Heavy and Medium TWVs to meet mission requirements. All trucks intended to operate off the FOB will be armored prior to shipment. No Soldier goes off a FOB unless they are in an armored vehicle. We are providing the right number of up-armored HMMWVs (UAH), weapons, and command and control systems. All brigades will have a full complement of UAHs to meet mission requirements. All plus-up UAHs will have Blue Force Tracking, Jamming devices and machine guns.

In the next six months we will produce 4,000+ UAH with the latest armor protection.

* - Humvees, vans and small trucks

** - Big Trucks

4,000+ Trucks and Humvees in six months? They haven‘t been able to do that in two years. If they were able to do it, they wouldn’t have had to cannibalize the National Guard armories and vehicle lots, which are still empty.

Plus-up? The mind reels at the thought that “armored” or “reinforced” was too simple a concept. I suppose they're going to start referring to officer promotions as "improvements" or "upgrades."

When an industry starts jargonizing its vocabulary that often means they’re out of ideas and are attempting to paradigmize their mission compliance in an external position, with reference to the traditional rectangular framework.