The Defense Department is planning to award contracts next month for additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in order to avoid a production gap, giving armored truck makers adequate time to order materials necessary to sustain peak manufacturing rates into early spring, according to a senior Pentagon official. John Young, the Pentagon's acting acquisition official, said in an Aug. 22 memo to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England that the six-month lead time required by MRAP...
