MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS — Up close, they're about as intimidating as a tank. At the very least, they are like a Humvee on super steroids. As far as controversy goes, they've had their fair share.

The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, now in use for training by Hawai'i Marines, are nearly 11 feet tall, counting the gunner's turret on top.

One six-wheeled version of the troop carrier weighs 20 tons — about the same as the Army's Stryker vehicle.

MRAPs, rushed to Iraq by Congress to counter the roadside bombs that account for 75 percent of U.S. fatalities, are a proven life saver.

But their tall V-bottom hull design, which deflects explosive blasts, also makes them prone to rollovers. They also catch on the electrical wires that form a spider web over Iraqi towns.

At least five deaths and many more injuries have been attributed to rollovers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To better familiarize Marines in their use — and their propensity to crush soft road shoulders, causing the vehicles to topple — the Corps said MRAPs have been delivered to five home-station bases for training.

Until now, most views of MRAPs in action have come with an Iraqi or Afghanistan backdrop.

Maj. Alan Crouch, a spokesman for Marine Corps Base Hawaii, said at least six MRAPs are being used regularly for training on O'ahu. The vehicles arrived around May.

Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., said 271 MRAPs have been fielded out of 300 expected to be delivered across the Corps as home-station training assets. The remainder will be in place by early 2009.

Lance Cpl. Graham Davis, 20, was getting some behind-the-wheel time recently at Bellows during exercise "Bellows Viper." About 50 Iraqi nationals added realism to the training that included patrols through mock Middle Eastern villages.

The 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, Davis' unit, is figuring on a return to Iraq next year.

The Marine from Spring Branch, Texas, estimated he easily logged 500 to 600 miles driving an MRAP from August 2007 to February 2008 when his unit was operating near Karma in western Iraq.

"I've been happy with them," Davis said of the big vehicles. "I've had a few people say they don't like them because they are limited in their abilities, but the protection they offer is definitely the best we've ever seen."

Both the Army and Marines use MRAPs in war zones, and service members have reported the vehicles withstanding 400 to 500 pounds of high explosives.

The MRAP hull channels the blast pressure up the sides of the vehicle. In a flat-bottomed Humvee, the blast punches through the floorboards, with deadly results.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, MRAPs are used in conjunction with armored Humvees. MRAPs can transport five to 10 troops, while a Humvee carries up to five.

Convoys in Iraq often included one MRAP in the lead and three Humvees with roof-mounted guns following, Davis said.

All of the Hawai'i Marine platoons had at least one MRAP, and "if we needed a whole patrol of MRAPs, it could be there," he said.

He added that "the first month was pretty rough. There was quite a bit of activity." That included quantities of roadside bombs "in the double digits" being found.

But Davis said his company did not take any injuries from roadside bombs.

"We had small-arms fire to one of the (MRAPs)," he said. "Not really a whole lot of damage. Rounds impacted the windshield and driver's side door. What hit the vehicle was stopped."

Davis doesn't make a big deal of the rollover tendencies. "You just have to keep in mind the roads you are on," he said.

Another downside is limited visibility through the relatively small panes of ballistic glass. A fellow Marine "would have to clear me on the right side so I wouldn't hit anything," Davis said.

The home-station training is good, Davis said, because it provides familiarization before arriving in a combat zone. When he went to Iraq in 2007, he said, he had to be pulled away from his unit to learn to drive an MRAP.

"Having them fielded here allows the Marines to be more effective once they reach a combat zone," Davis said. The training route at Bellows even passes alongside a stream that approximates an Iraqi canal.

Different MRAPs are produced by a variety of makers. The Hawai'i Marines train with 16-ton Cougars, and 20-ton Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response, or JEERV, vehicles.

According to a July 15 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Marine Corps commanders in 2005 identified an "urgent operational need" for armored vehicles to increase crew protection and mobility.

The next year, the Marines placed an order for 280 MRAP vehicles.

Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said MRAPs were the Pentagon's single most important acquisition program.

According to the GAO, more than $22 billion has been appropriated to acquire more than 15,000 MRAPs, with about 6,000 fielded.

In 2006, the Marines had decided to replace every Humvee in Iraq with MRAPs, but more than a year later, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said the number desired was being scaled back from 3,600 to 2,300.

Decreasing violence, coupled with the fact that the big MRAPs weren't as mobile as Humvees and could collapse some bridges and roads, led to convoys being a mix of MRAPs and Humvees.

There also has been controversy, with the accusation by a whistle-blower that the Marines delayed fielding the MRAP — costing American lives — because the service wanted to save money for a future project, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.

Maj. Eric Hamstra, the operations officer for the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines in Hawai'i, said every company in the battalion was slated to go through the cultural awareness, checkpoint, react to sniper fire, convoy and other combat training at Bellows.

More than 50 Iraqi nationals who work for the company Defense Training Systems acted as role players during the exercise.

At one training stop, a squad of 11 Marines had pulled up in a Cougar MRAP and two Hum-vees to talk to Iraqi villagers about a roadside bomb maker.

Lance Cpl. Ryan Cooey, 20, one of those Marines, also got back in February from Iraq, where he drove MRAPs.

Compared to a Humvee, "you sit up higher, but the power steering is good, and you don't notice too much of a difference," said the Marine from Delhi, Iowa.