By Emelie Rutherford
The Pentagon is expected to soon order potentially thousands of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP ) vehicles from multiple truck builders, bringing it close to wrapping up orders for the fast-paced acquisition program that began in late 2006.
Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM), managing the multi-contractor effort for all the services, is due to place orders for the underbelly-blast-resistant trucks this Friday or next Monday, “if all goes well,” a Pentagon source said.
Before orders can be placed, a memo has to be signed solidifying MRAP changes the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) on Feb. 21 made to the total number of MRAPs to be ordered. The memo had not yet been signed, sources said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates will be briefed on the MRAP program by Pentagon acquisition czar John Young and MRAP officials this Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told Defense Daily yesterday.
Asked during a Pentagon press conference if news will emerge this week about a substantial MRAP order, Morrell said: “I think there’s a decision that has to be made with regards to another buy; that could be taking place within that meeting” with Gates.
Contractors building the vehicles include International Military and Government LLC (IMG), BAE Systems, Force Protection Industries, Inc., [FRPT] and General Dynamics [GD], which has partnered with Force Protection to create Force Dynamics LLC.
Last December, MARCORSYSCOM ordered 3,126 MRAPs, raising the total on order to 11,941 vehicles. At the time Pentagon officials said the roughly 3,000 remaining MRAPs planned would be ordered in March 2008. Since then MRAP officials have repeatedly stated the contract orders would be placed in March, and sources this week told Defense Daily those plans have not altered, though the vehicle tally has.
The JROC on Feb. 21 agreed to increase the number of MRAPs slated for the Army, decrease the tally for the Marine Corps and Air Force and maintain planned MRAP figures for the Navy and Special Operations Command, Pentagon sources said.
The new MRAP number of the Army is roughly 12,000 vehicles, up from10,000 previously, Morrell told reporters yesterday.
“So that is the number that we are focused on for the Army,” Morrell said. “It does not affect dramatically the overall numbers that we are purchasing. I think the overall numbers [for all the services] will go up by about 386 to now 15,760 is sort of this interim number that we’re focused on.”
The previous MRAP tally, set by the JROC in September 2007, was 15,374 vehicles, including 100 vehicles for testing.
Though the JROC last month set a target number of approximately 12,000 MRAPs for the Army, it left a range of vehicles for the service, from 10,433 up to 15,884, Pentagon sources said.
The vehicle changes to the closely watched MRAP program came after Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway last November moved to reduce his service’s MRAP tally below 3,700, citing mobility and transportation issues with the large vehicles at a time when conditions for Marines was improving in Iraq. As a result, the JROC last month trimmed the Marine Corps’s MRAP number to 2,225, sources said.
Morrell, asked yesterday why the Army wants more MRAPs after previously looking to reduce its number, replied: “What’s been clear about this from the beginning is that we were going to always evaluate our need based upon what the commanders on the ground are telling us.”
“I think the Army is taking perhaps more time than most, given its size and given the burdens it now is dealing with, to figure out what exactly it is going to need, not just now but for the long-term as we’re buying these vehicles in mass quantities,” he said. “And they still have not pegged the exact number. But as it is they revised it upwards, and right now we are shooting for 12,000 as the Army number, that could still change based upon what the commanders are telling us.”
Gen. David Petraeus, commander U.S. forces in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S, Ambassador to Iraq, are set to visit Washington in April and brief Congress and President Bush on the war in Iraq.
MRAPs, with their V-shaped chassis, are intended to provide better protection from underbelly explosions from roadside bombs than Humvees do.
There were 3,432 MRAPs in theater as of March 5, Morrell said yesterday.
There is much uncertainty about the status of the MRAP program “outside of the beltway,” said Dean Lockwood, a Weapons Systems Analyst with Forecast International in Connecticut who tracks the program.
“On the one hand you have the way the services are suddenly modifying their expectations of requirements,” Lockwood said. “And I think the other [factor] is the fact that Marine Corps Systems Command is increasingly reluctant to reveal any sort of information on the operation and performance of these vehicles in Iraq.”