MRAP becomes US procurement priority

With backing from US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle is fast becoming the top procurement priority for the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Gates asked Congress on 17 July to shift USD1.2 billion from the department's Fiscal Year 2007 budget into the MRAP programme. The additional funds - drawn largely from US Army and US Marine Corps accounts - will go toward the purchase of an additional 2,650 MRAPs, increasing the total number of vehicles on order to 6,415. Once all the funds are in place, MRAP vehicles will comprise the third-largest 2007 DoD acquisition programme, behind only ballistic missile defence and the Joint Strike Fighter.

Over the past few months, the US military has awarded a series of contracts to multiple suppliers for a range of MRAP vehicles. The new vehicles, purpose-built to withstand mines and roadside bombs, offer a significantly higher level of protection than uparmoured Humvees, but the new push for MRAP funds has brought even greater scrutiny of the programme - and has raised questions about why the military leadership took so long to ramp up orders for MRAP production.

Under the new plan, the services are supposed to receive an additional 1,500 MRAPs by the end of 2007. All of the 6,415 on order are supposed to be delivered by March 2008. Previous plans called for an initial buy of 2,400 MRAPs, although total requirements in theatre are expected to climb as high as 17,700 vehicles - and perhaps even higher. The reprogramming of funds is expected to raise production rates dramatically for all MRAP manufacturers.

"Under our MRAP acceleration plan, the rate of MRAP production will rise from June's production of 82 vehicles to 489 vehicles in October and roughly 1,300 per month in December," said John Young, director of Defense Research and Engineering and chairman of the DoD's MRAP task force. "So as you can see, it is important that we work with Congress quickly to get these funds for the additional MRAPs and put these vehicles under contract. The use of available funds for the department and the reprogramming action will give the MRAP joint programme office USD5.4 billion to immediately put on contract in 2007 for MRAPs." 373 of 961 words