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Army to request 17,000 MRAPs

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren confirmed today that the Army is set to substantially increase the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles it had planned to buy, replacing within two years the 17,700 Humvees now in Iraq.

“The earlier plan was 2,500, and that’s not enough. I can’t tell you the exact number at this point, but it’s going to grow considerably,” Geren said, indicating that the Army is working to adjust its budget and to determine industry’s capacity to produce more MRAPs.

The plan to buy more MRAPs, he said, will not mean an end to the development, production and fielding of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which the Army was considering as a replacement for the Humvee, using the MRAP as an interim replacement.

Now, according to a Pentagon source, the plan has changed and more than 9,000 MRAPs will be procured for fiscal year 2008 and 8,700 more for fiscal 2009.

“By September 2009, every single Humvee in theater will be replaced with the MRAP,” said the source, who spoke to Army Times on condition of anonymity.

The Marine Corps already has more than 100 MRAPs on the ground in Iraq, and the Army will field the first of its 2,500 MRAPs in Iraq beginning in August, 700 of which are already in hand, Geren said.

The MRAP program has moved quickly and is a joint procurement effort between the Army and Marine Corps.

There are eight manufacturers who could deliver variations of the vehicle, which has a v-shaped hull to disperse blasts that occur under the roadways and are expected to be more resistant to side-blasts.

“This is the next evolution of vehicles that is responding to the underbelly attacks that sometimes take place. A natural progression of lighter, more effective, more resistant armor both personal and vehicle,” Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

The request for the newer vehicles was made by commanding general of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the source said.

“Odierno has asked to replace every Humvee in Iraq with the MRAP,” the source said.

A spokeswoman for Odierno in Iraq said she was unaware of the commander’s request.

The Humvee has been on the ground in Iraq since the beginning of operations in 2003 and has undergone several armor upgrades. But the extra armor weighed down the vehicle beyond its capabilities and has failed to effectively shield soldiers from the force of roadside bombs.

In a May 2 internal letter to top Pentagon officials, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called upon service leaders to make acquisition of the MRAP their “highest priority.”

“The MRAP should be considered the highest priority Department of Defense acquisition program,” the letter said, calling for the immediate application of “any and all options to accelerate the production and fielding of this capability.”

“I would like to know what funding, material, program, legal or other limits currently constrains the program and options available to overcome them,” Gates wrote.

Members of Congress have grilled Army leaders on why more MRAPs were not being ordered sooner. In the House of Representatives air-land subcommittee’s 2008 budget markup, $4.1 billion was allocated for MRAPs.

Gates’ letter also ponders why the Army and Marine Corps seem to have different plans for the MRAP.

“I am also concerned with the wide variance in approach on the use of this capability between the Marine Corps and the Army,” Gates wrote.