Jan. 12, 2009 -- The Joint Requirements Oversight Council has once again increased the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle acquisition objective, this time by 4,000 vehicles, according to a source with knowledge of the program.
The source tells Inside the Army that the JROC approved increasing the objective to 26,882 at a Jan. 4 meeting. That figure includes both MRAP and MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles.
The focus of late has been on M-ATVs, designed specifically for Afghanistan's difficult terrain. After President Obama announced he would send 30,000 additional troops to the country, Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon would likely increase its M-ATV buy to 10,000.
However, the source told ITA that U.S. Central Command and the Joint Staff have indicated they require only 1,400 more M-ATVs. Additionally, they are seeking 1,300 new category I MRAPs, the lightest type of the original MRAPs. The military plans to shift vehicles from Iraq to Afghanistan to make up the rest of the 4,000-vehicle requirement, according to the source.
Though there were five manufacturers in the original MRAP effort, Oshkosh is the only M-ATV builder. Now at its peak pace of 1,000 vehicles per month, Oshkosh has said it expects to sustain that rate through May to deliver more than 6,600 of the trucks.
In a statement provided to ITA in December -- before Gates spoke of increasing the M-ATV requirement -- the MRAP joint program office said it “is prepared to scale up as required to address the requirement provided us by the warfighter.” -- Marjorie Censer