New Equipment to Help Troops with IEDs

The Defense Department said the U.S. military has started shipping new equipment to Afghanistan to help troops cope with the increasing threat of improvised explosive devices there.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, told a Defense Department briefing Wednesday that the first seven of a new model of all-terrain vehicle (MATV), were shipped from the an Air Force base in Charleston, S.C. The MATV is a heavily armored multi-purpose all-terrain vehicle.

Morrell told reporters that these vehicles "are urgently needed because improvised explosive devices are claiming the lives" of increasing numbers of Americans and troops with NATO nations in Afghanistan.