The House Armed Services Committee questioned Gen. William Nyland, assistant commandant of the Marines, about how long it has taken to get armored Humvees into the field. Nyland said hundreds of new armored Humvees and armor kits to upgrade standard Humvees have been put to use or are en route to Iraq.

However, the roadside bomb attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds have forced the Pentagon to consider alternatives to the Humvee, he said. "If this is the threat of the future, the long-term utility of the Humvee has to be questioned," he said. "We have to take continued steps to find what will defeat this kind of a threat."

Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who has a son who served in Iraq, said the Marines should have moved faster to increase vehicle armor when insurgents began devising more powerful roadside bombs using triple-stacked mines, 155mm artillery shells and "shaped charges," which concentrate the force of an explosion. Nyland told Hunter the final batch of vehicle armor upgrades will be in Iraq by December.

A one-year plan, Hunter said, is too slow and means that soldiers and Marines "are going to take more hits than they would otherwise."

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the committee's ranking Democrat, said a new military vehicle can take a decade or more to develop. "I don't think the troops can wait 10 or 15 years," Skelton said. "There are a lot of wonderful young people getting injured, and if the Humvee, even with all the (armor) kits on it, doesn't cut the mustard, what does? We need to know."

Also Tuesday, Army Lt. Gen. John Vines, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference from Baghdad that insurgents' bombmaking and tactics are getting more sophisticated.

Vines rejected the idea of setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He said a troop reduction could begin early next year if Iraq holds elections for a permanent national government in December.

Significant obstacles remain to be cleared, Vines said. Those include the suicide attacks that he said are most likely being carried out by Sunni Muslim Arabs from neighboring countries who oppose the emergence of a government in Baghdad dominated by Shiite Muslims.

"It's very difficult to protect a populace against someone who is willing to murder themselves and others," Vines said.

In addition, the Iraqi government hasn't developed the ability to support its U.S.-trained security forces with equipment and pay in the battle against the insurgents, Vines said.

After the House hearing, Nyland said he was heading to Iraq to meet with Vines and other commanders about equipping and protecting U.S. forces. Hunter said he has been discussing with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a plan to shift Humvees and other vehicles so American troops in the most dangerous areas have the most heavily armored vehicles.

Lawmakers didn't have to rely on military testimony to learn about Humvees' vulnerability. Some have seen it for themselves in trips to Iraq. Armed Services Committee member Todd Akin, R-Mo., said U.S. commanders assured lawmakers visiting Baghdad last month that no vehicle leaves a U.S. base unless it's armored.

"I go out the same day and see a Humvee where the driver just got killed. It was sort of what I call 'good-ol'-boy armor,'" Akin said, referring to armor cobbled together by the troops themselves from scrap steel.

Hunter displayed a timeline in which his committee alerted the Pentagon in February to a Marine gunnery sergeant's proposal for fitting steel plate to Humvees. Two months later, the committee learned that the necessary steel was in a depot in neighboring Kuwait. Not until August will the Marines complete work on kits to upgrade armor of Humvees in Iraq.

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