Friday, January 24, 2025
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than two decades -- including stints with Defense News and Armed Forces Journal -- he has covered the Pentagon, defense industry, the military budget, weapon system acquisition and defense policy formulation as well as reporting on technology, business, and global arms trade. Jason has traveled to more than 40 countries, studied medieval history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lives in Brooklyn.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), one of the strongest backers of the Pentagon's push to field a new fleet of blast-resistant armored vehicles to Iraq, yesterday asked President Bush to make the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program a "national priority."
The Marine Corps waved off a 2005 request from commanders in Iraq for more than 1,100 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, delaying by more than a year Pentagon efforts to field a new armored fleet with improved protection against roadside bombs, according to Defense Department documents.
Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, the Pentagon's No. 2 officer, today is leading a group of four-star officers to observe the ongoing, round-the-clock testing that will be decisive in determining which Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle prototype, or prototypes, the military will select next month for its new armored fleet.
The Federal Aviation Administration has refused to certify the commercial 767 aircraft modified by Boeing into an aerial refueling tanker for the Japan Air Self Defense Force to carry cargo, passengers or fly long-distance missions, according to FAA documents.
The Army is looking to slash as much as $10 billion from its procurement accounts to pay for a larger fleet of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, setting off a round of budget drills that could throw its modernization goals into chaos and trigger a wave of program terminations and delays, according to Defense Department officials.
A hefty chunk of the billions the Pentagon plans to spend on Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles will be tapped not for armored vehicle assembly lines but to outfit MRAP platforms with a suite of radios, electronic warfare devices and navigation equipment that will connect the new fleet to the rest of the military.
Pentagon plans to rapidly produce new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles could stall due to short supplies of key industrial resources such as manpower and steel, which may prompt the Defense Department to divert key commodities away from other weapons programs, according to defense officials and documents.
The Pentagon is preparing to shift an additional $1.4 billion from Navy and Air Force fiscal year 2007 spending accounts to Army coffers, a reprogramming action that would raise the total funds shifted in recent weeks between service accounts to support the war in Iraq to $3 billion.
The Army today advised Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it plans to more than triple the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles the service will buy, setting a new procurement target of more than 8,000 vehicles -- a move that will effectively double the size of the Pentagon's overall MRAP fleet and boost the program's price tag to at least $16 billion.
The Joint Requirements Oversight Council last week ratified the U.S. military requirement for nearly 8,000 new armored vehicles marking one of the fastest endorsements to launch a new major weapon system program in recent memory, according to defense officials.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has designated the Marine Corps-led effort to acquire a fleet of armored vehicles designed to protect personnel from roadside bomb attacks as the Pentagon's "highest priority" procurement effort and is seeking options to further accelerate fielding plans for a program already moving at an exceptionally quick clip.
A key congressional defense subcommittee has proposed restrictive legislation that could keep the Joint Cargo Aircraft program from fully taking flight just as the Army and Air Force are poised to select a winner in a competition that could be worth nearly $5 billion.
The Army is considering a request from commanders in Iraq to replace every humvee there with a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, a move that -- if approved -- could more than triple the size of the MRAP program, which today carries an $8.4 billion price tag.
The Pentagon has updated its counterproliferation policy in a new directive that codifies new bureaucratic responsibilities and assigns working relationships to deal with both the threat of attack-- as well as the aftermath of a possible strike -- involving weapons of mass destruction.
American commanders in Iraq who daily contend with threats from two types of roadside bombs -- improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators -- are being asked which of these deadly insurgent weapons is most important to protect against.
The Pentagon's high-level requirements panel next week will revisit the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program and assess the assumptions underpinning the Marine Corps' rapid acquisition strategy, which relies on eight different companies producing a fleet of nearly 8,000 vehicles over the next 18 months.
Congress has appropriated $3 billion for the Pentagon to spend on a new fleet of armored vehicles over the next six months, naming the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected program a special "interest" item.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has directed two new assessments designed to advance the development of powerful tools senior Pentagon officials can use to make unprecedented side-by-side comparisons of weapon system capabilities, allowing them to regularly consider moving resources between service budgets.
The Marine Corps yesterday plunked down nearly $500 million to buy 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, kick-starting an expected procurement spree that will pump billions of dollars into the coffers of tactical vehicle makers this summer and quickly produce a new fleet of armored vehicles for troops in Iraq.
The Defense Department has delayed by nearly a month its plans to determine the winner of the Joint Cargo Aircraft competition, a contest with the potential to provide one of two competitors a nearly $5 billion deal.