Troops getting MRAPs ASAP, Gates says

Troops getting MRAPs ASAP, Gates says
By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 18, 2008 20:04:53 EST

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A multibillion-dollar effort to produce bomb-resistant vehicles for U.S. troops in Iraq is moving “as fast as humanly possible,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday, after a visit to the military facilities playing a key role in the program.

The project to build thousands of mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles — known as MRAPs — ought to be a case study for a Harvard Business School class on how to move a major manufacturing project from a concept to reality, Gates said.

“For all of the talk about how Washington can’t get anything done, this is an amazing example of Republicans, Democrats, the executive branch, the Congress, manufacturers, government bureaucrats, everybody pitching in and doing the right thing,” he told reporters during the flight back to Washington.

Demand for the vehicles remains strong, Gates said, as improvised explosive devices remain a significant threat in Iraq.

“For the first half of January, there were about as many IEDs as there were in all of December,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_gatesmraps_080118/