Ohio State University Gets Armored Military Vehicle, Dodges Questions About It

Q: Why do colleges cost so much these days?<p>A: All that military hardware is sooooo expensive!

I&#x27;d be interested to know more about the actual uses and capabilities of the vehicle. For example, the article states that the military has had problems with using the vehicles off-road and that the vehicle is prone to flip.<p>Elsewhere it is described as resistant to mines and ambush (how exactly?). I&#x27;m wondering what situation a university campus is likely to encounter where this vehicle would be superior to, say, a four-wheel drive.

Colleges of OSU&#x27;s size have had problems with riots after games and at the end of frat parties ( in fact, I believe OSU has had both, I know they have had football riots [0]). Vehicles, including police cars, get flipped and set on fire.<p>Since this is likely surplus military equipment from the US draw down in Iraq bought for cheap, perhaps it was a cheap way to get a vehicle for riot control?<p>Certainly, they aren&#x27;t expected to drive across IEDs on campus.<p>Keep in mind, the police forces at large state schools are actual sworn law enforcement officers who carry guns, arrest people, and are responsible for crowd control. OSU is more than 56k people, well past the point where a town would have it&#x27;s own police force.<p>Of course, this says nothing about whether any police forces should have this type of equipment.<p>[0]<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIHxDZwxloY" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wIHxDZwxloY</a>

To their defense: there has been a worrying trend recently where the perpetrators of thus shootings have been much better equipped. Until recently thus shootings was mostly done with 9-mm semi-automatic weapons. But for example both the batman theater shooter and Anders Behring Breivik her in Norway did use at least some bullet resisting equipment and assault rifles.<p>It is totally possible that the next shooter will have full tactical armor and a fully automatic assault rifle with drum magazines. When this happened first responders has to be prepared. They shouldn&#x27;t have to wait on SWAT while someone is going around shooting others. (This was what happened during the Utøya attack in Norway. The police that first reposted did not have the capability to stop the perpetrator, so they was set to direct traffic instead, while they waited on the national counter-terrorism unit to come to aid them. In the meanwhile Breivik could go around executing children.)

I remember a discussion on HN where this came up. IIRC someone suggested that it was more about the price - for some reason there was &#x2F; is a surplus of this kind of vehicle. Unfortunately I can&#x27;t find the thread again.<p>I wouldn&#x27;t call this a tank, though.

at reddit when this showed up weeks ago, ppl in the military were commenting how driving those are the worst thing they did on service. that its dangerously jumpy to the point they would question driving over speed bumps or crosing over sidewalks.<p>seems that some company developed something for military no-price-limits market that turned out so bad that they started a bargain sale to civilians.<p>ohio was just the first sucker that had to spend last minute budget to not lose it next year. and knowing how prevalent is this, expect a lot more to pop up.

For definitions of &#x27;tank&#x27; that include &#x27;armored truck&#x27; and exclude a cannon, treads and other features you kind of expect on a tank.

Riots after Ohio State&#x2F;Michigan game get pretty intense, there&#x27;s usually a fleet of helicopters out already.

I assume the intended use is an invasion of Michigan.

Always keeping it classy in Columbus. Go blue

Ah, shades of Kent.<p>Four dead in Ohio.