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Navistar wins bid to supply smaller MRAPs

Navistar won the competition to provide the Pentagon’s first batch of smaller Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

A contract announced Thursday awards $752 million to Navistar International for an unspecified number of vehicles. Navistar officials put the number at 822.

But Navistar may not remain the Pentagon’s sole source for the smaller MRAPs. The contract also provides $7 million apiece to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada and Force Protection for five test vehicles.

All vehicles are slated to be delivered by February, according to the contract announcement. The vehicles will be deployed to Afghanistan, a senior Pentagon official said.

In August, Pentagon officials asked industry to redesign MRAPs to be more maneuverable and less prone to roll over, the official said.

Most of the 822 vehicles will be MaxxPro Dashes, 4X4s that are 2 tons lighter, 2 feet shorter in height and 8 inches shorter in length than the previous three MaxxPro variants, which weighed about 17-19 tons.

“We’ve reduced the center of gravity, yet really the survivability has not been impacted at all. This vehicle can absorb EFP [explosively formed penetrators] protection and it has also been designed to absorb an anti-RPG kit, like an APS [active protection system],” Navistar vice president Patrick MacArevey.

He also said the turning radius was smaller and its top speed greater.

“The torque-to-weight ratio is very high because the Dash has a similar engine to the one which runs in the 25-ton MaxxPro Plus,” Navistar spokesman Tim Touhy said.

Navistar “engineers did a ride optimization and took the opportunity to upgrade the air conditioning,” MacArevey said.

The Dash carries a 10,000-pound payload, and is designed to be 85 percent common with previous MaxxPros to ease the logistics burden.

The Dash was blast-tested in Israel by Plasan, an Israeli company that makes the armor for the MaxxPros.

Pentagon officials said program officials have tweaked the MRAP since the first requirements went out in fall 2006.

“The program has gone a long way and continuously upgraded things that needed to be done and made light changes in order to adjust to different situations,” a Pentagon spokeswoman said. “We’ve always said that we will be flexible and we’ve always said that we will look at the requirement needs we they go along.”