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Panel approves $8.3B for MRAPs through 2008

The Joint Requirements Oversight Council, the top Defense Department procurement panel, approved in early July spending $8.3 billion through 2008 to produce an unspecified number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles as fast as possible.

“The final procurement quantity will be shaped by continual assessment of changing threat conditions, feedback from commanders in theater and potential changes in strategic landscapes and assigned missions,” said Defense Department spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin.

Defense Department sources said part of the reason for the uncertainty is that U.S. forces may not be deployed in Iraq in large numbers after 2008.

The JROC already has authorized the military to buy 7,774 MRAPs: 3,700 for the Marine Corps, 2,500 for the Army, 697 for the Air Force, 544 for the Navy and 333 for Special Operations Forces.

The $8.3 billion will cover these vehicles, and possibly more, Irwin said.

The Pentagon plans to buy a total of 23,200 14- and 21-ton MRAPs, a number that tripled in May after Army Secretary Pete Geren said his service planned to buy 17,700 MRAPs by 2010. In early May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the service chiefs to make MRAPs the Defense Department’s top acquisition priority.

Battlefield commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as lawmakers, called for more MRAPs.

Army Gen. Richard Cody, the vice chief of staff, said in late June that the MRAP push would continue through 2008.

“Sometime in 2008, we’ll know, based on the commanders’ needs on the ground, what the buy will be,” Cody said. “I don’t know how many we’re going to buy. We have the plan for a one-to-one replacement the commanders asked for, but more important is to maximize the monthly production rate through ’07 and ’08 so we give the operational commander what they need.”

Gina Cavallero contributed to this report.