Pentagon seeks enough MRAPs for all services

Pentagon seeks enough MRAPs for all services
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, September 21, 2007

ARLINGTON, Va. — Defense officials have authorized 15,274 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for all branches of the service, nearly double their previous target, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday.

Earlier this year officials had authorized 7,774 MRAPs for all of the services, including 3,700 for the Marine Corps and 2,500 for the Army. But the new authorization would allocate 10,000 MRAPs to the Army alone, Morrell said.

Morrell noted that the new requirement for MRAPs is subject to change.

“The idea here is that we think it’s best to ask for as many as we may need, and if events on the ground change such that we need fewer of them, we could always off-ramp this and end up buying fewer. But we want to make sure we have enough to meet the needs of the force to best protect them,” Morrell said.

The vehicles have V-shaped hulls that deflect blasts from underneath and have proved to withstand certain roadside bombs better than up-armored Humvees. The Defense Department plans to have 1,500 MRAPs in Iraq by the end of the year, Morrell said.

Earlier this year, the commander of Multi–National Corps–Iraq requested 17,700 MRAPs for the Army alone. On Thursday, Morrell said that figure was based on the idea of swapping all up-armored Humvees with MRAPs.


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