Posted on 12/10/2004 7:39:48 PM PST by JustAnotherOkie
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army entered negotiations with an armor manufacturer Friday in an effort to accelerate production of armored versions of the Humvee to get them to the troops more quickly, Army and company officials said.
Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey spoke with officials at Armor Holdings, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Fla., who told him Friday they could increase production by up to 100 vehicles a month.
Army officials had previously believed the factory was working at capacity until the company told the news media Thursday that it could make more. Democrats immediately criticized the Bush administration for not boosting production sooner.
Still, company officials said the Armor Holdings plant was not immediately capable of boosting output. Armor Holdings said in a statement issued Friday that it could increase its rate of production by February or March.
"During the interim period, we will continue to build as many vehicles as possible, as we have done to date. In fact, we are currently ahead of the Army's production schedule by more than 330 total vehicles," the statement said.
In addition, the Army would also have to go to Congress for additional funding if Armor Holdings sought more money, officials said.
The Army has ordered 8,105 of the armored Humvees, and 5,910 are in Iraq, Afghanistan and nearby countries. Armor Holdings is already producing 450 a month, meaning they would be finished sometime in the early spring. Any increased production by the company before then would accelerate the completion of the order.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfield, responding to a soldier's complaint about not enough armored vehicles for the troops, said Wednesday the Army was working to produce more armored vehicles, but it was "a matter of physics, not a matter of money," suggesting that production lines at operating at capacity.
But Armor Holdings spokesman Michael Fox said Thursday that the company recently completed an analysis after the Marines inquired about buying 50 to 100 armored vehicles each month.
"We determined it was doable," Fox said.
Armor Holdings said it expected to produce about 4,000 armored vehicles this year, compared to 500 in 2001, 600 in 2002, and 850 in 2003.
Cost of the armored Humvees is about $150,000 each.
Production has to be coordinated with AMC General LLC of South Bend, Ind., which produces the trucks used to make the Armored Humvees.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry, who continually decried the lack of equipment during his unsuccessful presidential campaign, on Friday called on Rumsfeld to investigate.
Several companies that manufacture protective equipment have indicated they can significantly boost production, Kerry said in a letter to Rumsfeld.
There are thousands more Humvees in Iraq that were built without the extra armor. The military has purchased thousands of kits with bolt-on armor, but several thousand Humvees, and thousands more heavy trucks, remain without armor for use against insurgent bombs, guns and rockets.
The soldier's question to Rumsfeld, at a town-hall meeting in Kuwait this week, has led critics to ask why the Pentagon has been unable to send enough armored equipment 21 months into the war. They said war planners had too rosy a picture of how the campaign would last and didn't think so many troops and so much armor would be needed for so long.
"This is about faulty analysis and a failed strategy," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. "We've never had enough troops on the ground since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government to deal with the insurgency because we didn't expect one."
Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank, agreed.
"We have pretty much miscalculated every step along the way - why we went, how we should do it, what we needed, what support we would have, how long it would last - we pretty much got it all wrong," he said.
There was far too little advanced body armor and there were too few armored vehicles to deal with what the Pentagon has since acknowledged is a far stronger and longer insurgency than expected. Officials say more is being manufactured as fast as possible.
Good for that reporter. Whatever his methods and motivation he got the ball rolling. Lives will be saved!!
"The Army entered negotiations with an armor manufacturer Friday in an effort to accelerate production of armored versions of the Humvee to get them to the troops more quickly, Army and company officials said."
Why wasn't this done months ago?
Exactly my point. The reporter's were totally justified.
It seems to me like he did the right thing from the wrong motives.
That makes the issue a little more ambiguous for me.
Because war has a thousand variables, and the need for X-number of armored versions of the ten-or-so various models of Humvee was difficult to estimate.
Remember- if they had planned more for armor, then by necessity they would have planned LESS for other important needs (like food or ammo, for example).
I hate most reporters and like Rumsfield. But in this instance the question was a good one that has been on my mind for quite some time. If this furor saves the life of one serviceman, it's worth it. America's finest deserve America's best!!
Not to me if he got the vehicles. There was no other way.
Those are totally separate issues. There is plenty of money for those cheap item. Sounds like serious BS to me.
Same here...
"Because war has a thousand variables, and the need for X-number of armored versions of the ten-or-so various models of Humvee was difficult to estimate."
Yes, but this particular need emerged months ago. They just didn't move on it.
"Remember- if they had planned more for armor, then by necessity they would have planned LESS for other important needs (like food or ammo, for example)."
In a perfect universe, they would have planned less for things that could be deferred until later--like new cars for VIPS, certain research programs, renovation of the restaurants in the new Sanno Hotel in Tokyo...any and every perk for the perfumed princes, most especially including new carpets and mahogany desks.
Most unarmored humvees arent used outside camps.
Look, if we brought all our servicemen home, we would save all of their lives. They need to be there, so therefore some will die. With the humvees, most unarmored werent driven outside of the camps. Remember that story not too long ago about a convoy of soldiers who refused to do their job? They refused because they werent working under optimal conditions...NEWSFLASH: War is fought under "optimal" conditions.
I meant to say isnt.
It was the U.S. Army that recruited a few genius mathematicians in W.W. II who invented the distribution schemes that maximize resource efficiency based on whatever factors you choose (by knowing or estimating supply and production needs; this is the realm of linear algebra. Many economic models then grew out of it over the last 60 years.). This allowed them to decide, "we'll send 50 Jeeps to this base, 30 to this other one, and supply them with X and Y tons of replacement parts based on our shipping ability to move them..."
That's exactly what number-crunching, pencil-pushing war planners do for a living 40+ hours a week. Nobody "dropped the ball". Sh-- happens; it's just the way it is.
They believed......Bush needs to call Rummy in and ask who is running the Army.
The company says it can't increase production until about March...how is that Rummy's fault? By the way production has been increased from about 30 or 40 a month since the Iraq war started and it was seen the need for more armored Humvees and other vehicles. The Marines were already negotiating for the extra vehicles before the question was asked, so increase in production would have been coming question or no.
You guys don't read much do you? When it was discovered the need for more armor the company that is making the humvees were asked to increase production, they jumped from 30 or 40 per month to the 400 a month they are making now. This problem was seen months ago and WAS acted upon. The government was told this company was working at capacity at 400 per month and had no reason not to believe them.
The military chain of commnd itself is responsible for the screwup. The troops have been screaming for armor plating for months. Why no sense of procurement urgency? Everyone from sergeant to general has some splaining to do to Rummy.
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