Its sad but true. No help from Meehan by the way. The up armored humvee funding and the body armor funding came about from intense congressional pressure beginning in about October-November. The up armored program still is not funded to meet current army needed levels though there has been substantial improvement in the last month or so. The body armor issue was resolved more quickly with 6 vendors activated and it is largely behind us. Still up armor humvee and retro kit funding is about $700 MM short to meet immediate in-theater needs and Meehan/Simmons on the House side and several bi-partisan senators on the senate side will probably move to resolve this matter this summer after 6 months of work on our part. Republic Rep. Hunter did a good job of coalescing the bi-partisan matters on this top last week in the house armed services committee hearings. Transcrips are amazing on this and will go a long way to answering your question. If you want them I can send them to you.
So exactly where DID the armored *turtleback* Humvees that came off the production lines go to? Some to Kosovo for IFOR/;KFOR, of course.
Tue Apr 27,10:19 AM ET
Jordanian special forces stand on their Humvees as they prepare for a display during the opening of the arms exhibition of Special Operations Forces Exhibition (SOFEX) in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday April 27, 2004. Around 250 international firms, from 32 countries including the United States, Britain, and France are taking part in the the three-day exposition.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)