Non-Subscriber Extract
Opinion: Vehicle rethink holds key to Force Protection's future success
By Keri Smith and Ben Goodlad
26 March 2008
United States-based land systems company Force Protection Industries Inc may need to realign its business in order to cope with a shrinking domestic Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles market and meet foreign requirements as it looks beyond the home market for opportunities.
Jane's Land Forces Consultant Christopher Foss said on 18 March: "The [MRAP] export market, in relation to the quantities being bought by the US government, is much smaller... They [Force Protection] may have to adapt significantly."
He added: "Funding for MRAPs is not there for the future... Australia and the Netherlands have Bushmasters [developed by Thales Australia] and Germany has Dingos [developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann]... Force Protection may not be able to get the same level of export as orders from the US government in the long term."
He pointed out that the decline in MRAP orders may also affect other MRAP suppliers.
A spokesman for Force Protection told Jane's on 17 March that the group is looking outside the US for continued MRAP business after it emerged that it had secured just 29 of the 2,243 MRAP orders announced by the US Department of Defense (DoD) on 14 March.
The spokesman referred to contracts agreed in late February between Force Protection and the UK and Italian Ministries of Defence (MoDs) for the respective supply of 174 and 10 MRAP vehicles, adding that "other foreign governments" would be likely to want MRAPs.
Foss argued: "The thing to look at is that we have armies for high-intensity warfare, but counter-insurgency warfare has meant a huge number of MRAPs [are being supplied to the US]. Other countries, particularly those not involved in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, may not want the same number."
Image: A Force Protection Cougar in service with the US Marine Corps. (USMC)