Inside Defense
Nov. 2, 2009 -- The Defense Department is likely to order at least 1,000 more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles early next week, program officials said today.
The Pentagon is 1,400 vehicles shy of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council-approved requirement of 6,644 M-ATVs, but MRAP program manager Paul Mann told Inside the Army today that orders are planned based on lead time.
Speaking to ITA at an M-ATV display at the Pentagon, he predicted DOD will "at least order 1,000" around Nov. 10, though he emphasized that the date reflects an estimate.
"Will we order the rest of them?" Mann asked. "Well, that's an option, but 1,000 keeps us able to do the maximum production with no break in production, and that's why Nov. 10 is important."
The vehicles ordered thus far will be completed in March 2010, Mann said.
"Orders we place now for the deliveries in April, May just buys us more time," he told ITA. "As long as we're buying 100 percent of their capacity, we don't always have to buy every vehicle they can produce in a month."
"The requirement is very dynamic -- it's changed four times this year," Mann continued. "So do you want to hurry up and finish or do you want to ramp down and allow yourself a little bit of time on the back end in case the requirement changes again?"
Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, joint program executive officer for MRAP, told ITA at the same event today that "there will be another order.
"It may not to be to the full approved JROC quantity," he added. "The services continue to massage their numbers, but we expect it's probably going to be early next week."
Brogan declined to identify the quantity of vehicles the Pentagon will buy or to say if the order will be the last for M-ATV, noting that "if experience has shown us anything in MRAP, it's a growth industry.
"So to proclaim a final number at any point before we're done is probably just too risky," he continued.
Brogan said today that manufacturer Oshkosh remains well ahead of its scheduled production rates. Though slated to build 385 M-ATVs in October, the company as of the end of last week was already 159 vehicles into November's production, according to Brogan.
Oshkosh has said it is scheduled to build 664 of the vehicles in November before ramping up to 1,000 in December, and Brogan said today he remains confident the company will reach those levels.
As part of today's event, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter viewed the vehicle. He told reporters he had driven it at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and praised its comfort and effectiveness, as well as the performance of Oshkosh.
Additionally, Carter told reporters that allied countries have expressed interest in the truck.
"There are other countries that have asked for MRAPs and MRAP ATVs," he said today. "This is the kind of capability that obviously all of the partners would like to have and they can be part of the program."
However, Mann said the program office is focused on first fielding the trucks to the services, and a foreign component to the effort "is still in the discussion phase for procurement orders." -- Marjorie Censer
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