After 10 years the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP) program office furled and sheathed its colors June 9 in a ceremony that marked the end of its independent existence.
Amid escalation of U.S. military involvement in the two wars for which MRAPs were rushed to the field and became iconic, the behemoth vehicles are taking a back seat. Opened in 2007, the MRAP program office oversaw the swift fielding of trucks designed to withstand roadside bomb blasts that were taking a heavy toll on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Thank you to all who have worked so tirelessly over the history of the program to provide life-saving vehicles for American warriors,” read a message posted June 9 to the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (CS&CSS) social media accounts. The message was accompanied by a minute-long video of a ceremony in which the colors were cased by Col. J.T. Craft, who led the Army Program Office for MRAP for the last three years.
The huge mine-resistant trucks eventually came to symbolize a sluggish Army weighed down with heavy equipment optimized for long-haul counterinsurgency fights. Many of them were sold to Middle East allies, given to the Iraqi and Afghan militaries or simply destroyed instead of shipping them back the United States.
While it is shuttering the MRAP program office, a portion of the vehicle fleet will remain in the Army’s inventory. The service has a plan to keep more than 8,000 newer MRAPs.
In 2014, the Army conducted a detailed analysis of projected MRAP requirements, vehicle mission roles, logistics commonality, and sustainment costs with the goal to balance risk, capabilities and affordability. As a result of that analysis, the Army chose to retain 8,585 of its newest MRAPs, while divesting older, less capable models that are no longer needed and are cost prohibitive to ship, reset, upgrade and sustain, Michael Clow, a spokesman for PEO CS&CSS told Defense Daily in 2016.
After further review and refinement, the Army last year reduced the enduring requirement to 8,222 vehicles, including 5,395 Oshkosh [OSK] MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs), 2,526 Navistar [NAV] MaxxPro Dash vehicles, and 301 MaxxPro long-wheelbase ambulances.
“The Army is not retaining approximately 12,000 older, less capable MRAP vehicles,” Clow said. “Many are in poor condition due to battle damage and/or high OPTEMPO usage and would be cost prohibitive to ship, reset, upgrade and sustain.”
The Army is continuing its current program to reset these 8,222 vehicles and upgrade them to the same standard configuration before final disposition, which is primarily to Army Prepositioned Stocks in several geographic locations. Reset and standardization efforts are on track to finish up in the current fiscal year.
Another 250 BAE Systems RG33L vehicles will be repurposed as Medium Mine Protected Vehicles (MMPV) Type 1, used by combat engineers performing explosive ordnance disposal missions. Conversions of RG33Ls to MMPV Type 1s are underway at Letterkenny Army Depot, in Pennsylvania.