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Marines up requirements for 2nd MRAP batch

The Marines are preparing to order up to 20,000 more armored, mine-protected vehicles — and they want this batch to improve on the last one.

By the end of July, the service’s Systems Command will ask industry for bids and test vehicles for MRAP II, the Corps’ second batch of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. The exact number to be ordered will depend on how long the Marines expect to be in Iraq, said Marine Corps and Defense Department officials.

The first batch, ordered over the last six months, included several thousand vehicles. About 1,000 are already in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Marines plan to order a total of 22,000 MRAPs by 2010 for the Army, Navy, Special Operations Forces and Marines, depending on the length of large-scale deployment in Iraq for U.S. forces.

The vehicles in the second batch will be required to move faster, offer troops even better protection, and, in some cases, carry more armor — all requirements based on lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Any changes are designed to provide the most effective protection for the warfighter given the current threat environment,” said SysCom spokeswoman 1st Lt. Geraldine Carey.

Candidate vehicles, which are to be delivered within 60 days of the solicitation, will be blast- and road-tested.

“We already have MRAP contracts in place to deliver survivable vehicles; we must persistently challenge industry to enhance force protection attributes to the maximum extent possible,” said a senior Marine Corps official familiar with the MRAP program.

The new MRAPs will need to offer better protection against explosively formed penetrators, a particularly deadly form of roadside bomb, said a senior Marine Corps official.

The Army is considering buying heavy add-on armor called Frag Kit #6, invented by and now in testing with the Army Research Lab. Army Secretary Pete Geren told lawmakers June 19 that the Army is looking at the Fraq Kit #6 for MRAPs.

Another kind of anti-EFP add-on armor is being pitched by Ladson, S.C.-based Force Protection, whose officials say their product can even stop the series of heated charges called multislugs.

Like the contracts handed out in January, the MRAP II contracts will be Indefinite Quantity/Indefinite Delivery.

“We will probably do something similar. Persuade us you have a credible solution, we will rapidly buy a few prototypes and test it. Proof on the test range is key. Performance of the product will dictate the speed in which production contracts can be awarded,” said a senior Marine Corps official.

Officials say the MRAP II vehicles could be delivered by October or November.