InsideDefense.com reports:
Army leaders are heading to Iraq and Kuwait on a mission to determine exactly how many Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles the service needs, an assessment that could propel the total size of the MRAP program well beyond 23,000 vehicles and the price tag north of $23 billion, according to defense sources.
Well, that’s not really surprising, We’ve been saying for a while now that the final price tag was likely to be in the neighborhood of $25 billion, but what is surprising is this:
The Army has issued a request for proposals for a new Medium Mine Protected Vehicle (MMPV) initiative that resembles the Marine Corps’ Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle program and could draw on the same industrial base. The solicitation, dated May 29, calls for a blast-protected, wheeled vehicle that will operate in explosive hazardous environments to support route clearance operations, explosive hazards reconnaissance operations and explosive ordnance disposal operations. While there are major similarities between the MRAP and MMPV programs in terms of technical requirements for survivability and mobility, there are also key differences. The MRAP program is looking to multiple companies to provide vehicles with V-shaped hulls designed to deflect underbody bomb blasts. But the Army will pick just one winning contractor. At a minimum, the Army plans to buy seven MMPVs for test purposes, but it could buy as many as 2,500, the RFP says. The MMPV will be procured and produced over a five to eight year period, the RFP says. The Marine Corps is fielding MRAPs abroad this year, based on urgent requests from commanders in the field. The Army does not plan to field MMPVs until the third quarter of FY08 and will start fielding them in the United States. The Army is using the Pentagon’s force-development process – the Joint Capability Integration and Development System – to develop the MMPV. The MRAP program calls for multiple variants, but the MMPV program simply seeks one kind of vehicle. The MRAP program involves contractor logistics support, but the Army wants organic logistics support for the MMPV. House authorizers recommended shifting $66 million in the Army’s fiscal year 2007 budget request away from the MMPV effort to support the MRAP program. In the report that accompanies the House version of the FY07 defense authorization bill, House authorizers said the $66 million requested to build 82 MMPVs would be better spent on MRAPs. (Christopher J. Castelli, Inside The Navy – 6/4/07)
That actually sounds like it makes a good bit of sense–one of the biggest concerns with MRAP has to be the Pentagon’s reliance on multiple suppliers, which will create a logistics nightmare. But let’s not forget that the Pentagon is also going full steam ahead with JLTV, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle–which is the real replacement for the Humvee, and which also has a v-shaped hull. Just how many tactical wheeled vehicle programs does the Pentagon have, and how much is going to be spent on them over the next few years? I’m not sure anyone really knows the answer to the second question, but it looks like we now have three programs to replace the Humvee. Which might make sense, but it is troubling that the biggest proponent of MRAP in the U.S. Congress, Joe Biden, is saying things like “The idea that we’re not building new Humvees with the V-shaped things is just crap.” We are, Senator Biden, a whole lot of them. Is it possible that Congress understands these issues just well enough to really screw things up?
