The Pentagon has approved buying more than 15,000 new bomb-resistant vehicles to better protect ground troops in Iraq, more than double the number it had planned to acquire earlier this year.
The big increase comes after Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed the Army to put more soldiers in the heavily armored vehicles that provide more protection than the Humvees now widely used in combat patrols.
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Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell announced Thursday the Army has requested 10,000 mine-resistant ambush-protected armored vehicles, or MRAPs, after initially saying it needed only 2,700.
MRAPs have increased the chances of survival for soldiers and Marines, given the vehicle’s large size and a V-shaped under-carriage that disperses outward an explosion’s blast. Though armor-plated, the smaller Humvee is vulnerable to improvised-explosive devices, the No. 1 killer of soldiers and Marines in Iraq.
If U.S. troop levels in Iraq drop below the planned 130,000 next July, “we can always off ramp this and end up buying fewer,” Morrell told reporters at the Pentagon.
The current goal is to have 1,500 MRAPs in Iraq by year’s end. To date, the Pentagon has signed contracts to buy more than 6,400 vehicles for about $5 billion.
An Army spokesman declined to comment on why the service has gone from seeking 2,700 MRAPs last spring to 10,000 today.
“It’s a combination of various assessments that come in from the field. At this point in time, the Army decision would change the number to 10,000,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin.
Gates urged the Army earlier this year to accelerate the number of MRAPs flowing to Iraq after reports that no Marine had been killed by an IED while riding in an MRAP.
