WASHINGTON: Delivery delays have spurred the Pentagon to consider ordering up to 20,000 more armored vehicles needed to protect U.S. soldiers from roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hampered by industry production constraints, the Marine Corps may launch a second competitive bid this month for upgraded Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles, according to a government document.
Production delays have put the Pentagon behind schedule on deployment so the second bid would aim to attract companies that may not have bid on the first go-round.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/13/business/NA-FIN-US-Pentagon-Armored-Vehicles.php
Amazing that it’s taken so long to field something better than an up-armored humvee.
Can I get one of these for commuting on the D.C. beltway?
Super-jeep.
Not only munitions-resistant, but able to ford streams and climb steep terrain.
What they could have done with something like this during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
But the technology simply did not exist then.
Just wish these were on hand contemporaneously with the surge. But at least they will be there soon. I hope.
Back during WW2 the gov’t would contract out to many different companies to build military vehicle en masse, they should do that again. It’s not like Ford or Chrysler, or even GM couldnt use the extra cash right now. I believe getting uparmored vehicles to the troops is of the highest priority right now, it certainly would lessen the amount of deaths taken on our side, which could lead to a better opinion of the war here at home. Anyways that is all JMO.
The Pentagon has approved the expansion of the MRAP program to over 20,000 vehicles. The US Army plans to increase its fleet of MRAP vehicles from the previously planned 2,300 to 17,700 vehicles. The Marines’s allocation will remain at 3,400 and special operations forces will receive about 300 (170 have already been ordered). This plans will virtually phase out the HMMWV from use in combat patrols and high risk missions. Responding to the urgent requirement, the Army plans to have all 17,700 MRAPs in theater by April 2009. To accomodate this plan all suppliers are expanding their production facilities to speed up deliveries, reaching several hundred vehicles per month by the automn of 2007.
The Defense Department’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) endorsed procuring as many MRAPs as industry can provide in fiscal 2008. The top-level panel, which validates military requirements, recommended evaluating the situation in Iraq periodically and adjusting the acquisition plan based on the need. “the department is embarking on an aggressive acquisition strategy to put as many of these armored vehicles into the field as fast as possible,” Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs said. Defense Department and military services are reaching out to industry to “incentivize” companies to boost production while reducing the production timetable, Whitman said.
On early July 07 the Pentagon released another batch of orders for armored vehicles, as part of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) and other armored vehicle programmes. The new orders cover additional orders from Force protection and International Engines and Trucks (IET), for 395 Category I (Cougar) vehicles and 76 Category II vehicles (60 from Force Protection and 16 from International). Further orders for 441 RG-33 based MRAP vehicles were awarded to BAE Systems. Two weeks later (July 13), Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems, a subsidiary of BAE Systems’ Armor Holdings Inc. received another order for 1170 MRAP vehicles under a second order worth over half a billion US$ ($518 million). Under this contract the company will supply 1,154 4x4 Category I vehicles and 16 Category II (6x6) vehicles to be delivered by February 2008.
http://www.defense-update.com/newscast/0707/news/030707_afv.htm
General Dynamics has more focus and determination than our government has.
Kudo's to you General Dynamics!
According to wikipedia, the vehicle shown in these pics on this thread, is called a “Cougar”. Not a buffalo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_%28vehicle%29
V shaped hulls are now the standard, rather than being unique.
Amazing. Could it be the fluoride in the water did have an effect after all? SO many people voting Democratic. SO many people believing the surge and the war is lost.
If I had the cash I would buy one and drive it to the grocery store every day with a Dick Cheney ‘08 sticker on the back.
Steel Wheels...
