June 4, 2009 -- With less than a month to go before an expected production award, the powerful Joint Requirements Oversight Council has approved a major expansion of the military’s requirement for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles, lighter MRAPs bound for troops in Afghanistan.
According to a military source, the JROC on Tuesday approved a new requirement for 5,244 of the trucks, more than double the 2,080 objective laid out in the request for proposals. However, the original RFP indicated the program could grow to include as many as 10,000 vehicles.
The JROC decision has not yet been signed, the source said.
An unclassified briefing prepared for the JROC and obtained by Inside the Army shows that the 5,244 requirement would provide 1,565 M-ATVs for the Marine Corps.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway has recently praised the Marine Corps' use of Oshkosh's TAK-4 Independent Suspension Kits to adapt MRAPs produced under the original initiative to Afghanistan's terrain.
Yet he said May 15 that the Marines are not “divorcing” from the M-ATV effort.
The new briefing document notes that the 1,565 Marine Corps figure for M-ATVs “is a wedge.”
If an upgraded version of the Cougar MRAP -- a Force Protection-built vehicle outfitted with the Oshkosh suspension kit -- “performs well, the Marine Corps will reduce the [M-ATV] requirement,” the briefing says.
“It also includes 613 M-ATV [required] only with introduction of 2d RCT and 95 COCOM directed as Theater Reserve,” it adds.
According to the briefing, the Army would receive 2,598 of the M-ATVs, while U.S. Special Operations Command would be allocated 643, the Air Force 280 and the Navy 65. Another 93 would be dedicated to testing.
The document cites as part of the requirement refinement process the original joint urgent operational needs statement, which called for 2,080 vehicles, as well as an April 3 memo from the U.S. Central Command chief calling for at least 3,806 vehicles.
A May 18 memo from the deputy director of operations within CENTCOM's operations directorate (J-3) requested 4,100 vehicles, according to the briefing.
The document also lists two risks for the M-ATV effort: that the manufacturers would not be able to meet the schedule and demand; and that the logistics supportability of the program is “undetermined.”
The substantial growth in the program's size comes as four companies await word on whether their M-ATV variant will be selected.
Though program officials have long said that the goal in the M-ATV effort is to award one production contract, investors and industry representatives have speculated that the program might come to look more like the original MRAP effort and result in multiple contracts. The increased requirement only adds fuel to that fire.
In May, the Army and Marine Corps awarded contracts for three production-representative vehicles to BAE Systems, Oshkosh, Navistar and Force Dynamics -- a Force Protection and General Dynamics Land Systems team. BAE -- pushing two different versions of the vehicles -- was awarded two contracts.
The program office is conducting testing on the vehicles at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and a contract award is expected by the end of the month. -- Marjorie Censer