Key Issues OCX ACV fielding 'Single-sensing grid'
Defense officials are figuring out how the military's fielding goals in Afghanistan for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected class of vehicles could best be met. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, Army Gen. David Petraeus said officials are building a “business case” to determine which option would be more economical: Building new vehicles and shipping them to Afghanistan or refurbishing vehicles resident in Iraq and transporting them there.
Petraeus, who oversees the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as the chief of U.S. Central Command, said the goal is to eventually have 14,500 MRAPs in Afghanistan. Of those, 6,500 would be of the heavy design originally fielded in Iraq, while “8,000-plus” would be of a lighter, all-terrain variant, he said.
Only “small numbers” of the vehicles, designed to protect troops from improvised explosive devices, would be given to allies, Petraeus said.
The general's comments come as Pentagon officials continue to rush MRAPs to Afghanistan, as roadside bomb deaths there are on the rise. Defense Department acquisition chief Ashton Carter has said he operates under the maxim, “First acquire, then require,” when it comes to the bomb-proof vehicles.