thedrifter
01-18-07, 12:58 PM
HASC Dems Criticize Industry Over Armored Vehicle Efforts
By Michael Bruno/Aviation Daily
01/18/2007 09:26:57 AM
Newly empowered House Armed Services seapower subcommittee Demo-crats are criticizing industrial suppliers for Army and Marine Corps armored personnel vehicles in light of an expected tripling in requirements and an increase in ground forces in Iraq and across the U.S. military.
"If we get angry, it's going to be at industry," Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) told two Marine generals during a Jan. 16 hearing over force protection equipment for ground forces. Taylor turned and addressed other panel members present - mostly Democrats - and told them that the reason lawmakers "go to bat" for the industrial base in peacetime is so that it delivers in wartime.
But Taylor, accompanied by HASC airland Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), said it was disappointing that manufacturers were not doing everything they could to make the vehicles as quickly as possible - such as putting steel for military equipment ahead of commercial building orders. Abercrombie lamented that competition sensitivities could be watering down the impression that needs to be given to manufacturers.
They did not provide specifics.
The main vehicle under discussion is the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, a U.S. joint services program being managed by the Marines. The program is being organized around several classifications of vehicles, including Force Protection Inc.'s V-shaped-bottom Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles. But "some quantity" of so-call up-armored Humvees are still needed because they are smaller and able to travel where larger MRAPs cannot go.
The Marines, Army and Navy now want 4,060 new MRAP vehicles made by year's end, including 1,022 for the Corps, according Brig. Gen. Michael M. Brogan, head of Marine Corps Systems Command. Vehicles take another 60 days to outfit for deployment.
But that "stretch goal" changes almost daily, he acknowledged, and the figure was eyed before President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more soldiers to Iraq was announced last week. "These vehicles will not arrive before the troops," Brogan said, referring to the additional troops headed to Iraq, including 4,000 Marines. "The need for these vehicles is greater now than when we first received the requirements."
Cross-leveling, or in-theater swapping of vehicles, and increased deployment of "home-based" equipment will provide enough vehicles to protect troops outside forward operating bases until the new MRAPs can be delivered, Brogan said.
Brig. Gen. Randolph Alles, commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said the Marines' requirement for three times the 1,022 vehicles has been working its way up through Marine leaders. Brogan said most funding likely will be asked for in the fiscal 2008 supplemental spending request, although some funds could be sought in FY '07 reprogramming requests and even the second FY '07 supplemental request due in a few weeks.
Ellie
By Michael Bruno/Aviation Daily
01/18/2007 09:26:57 AM
Newly empowered House Armed Services seapower subcommittee Demo-crats are criticizing industrial suppliers for Army and Marine Corps armored personnel vehicles in light of an expected tripling in requirements and an increase in ground forces in Iraq and across the U.S. military.
"If we get angry, it's going to be at industry," Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) told two Marine generals during a Jan. 16 hearing over force protection equipment for ground forces. Taylor turned and addressed other panel members present - mostly Democrats - and told them that the reason lawmakers "go to bat" for the industrial base in peacetime is so that it delivers in wartime.
But Taylor, accompanied by HASC airland Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), said it was disappointing that manufacturers were not doing everything they could to make the vehicles as quickly as possible - such as putting steel for military equipment ahead of commercial building orders. Abercrombie lamented that competition sensitivities could be watering down the impression that needs to be given to manufacturers.
They did not provide specifics.
The main vehicle under discussion is the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, a U.S. joint services program being managed by the Marines. The program is being organized around several classifications of vehicles, including Force Protection Inc.'s V-shaped-bottom Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles. But "some quantity" of so-call up-armored Humvees are still needed because they are smaller and able to travel where larger MRAPs cannot go.
The Marines, Army and Navy now want 4,060 new MRAP vehicles made by year's end, including 1,022 for the Corps, according Brig. Gen. Michael M. Brogan, head of Marine Corps Systems Command. Vehicles take another 60 days to outfit for deployment.
But that "stretch goal" changes almost daily, he acknowledged, and the figure was eyed before President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more soldiers to Iraq was announced last week. "These vehicles will not arrive before the troops," Brogan said, referring to the additional troops headed to Iraq, including 4,000 Marines. "The need for these vehicles is greater now than when we first received the requirements."
Cross-leveling, or in-theater swapping of vehicles, and increased deployment of "home-based" equipment will provide enough vehicles to protect troops outside forward operating bases until the new MRAPs can be delivered, Brogan said.
Brig. Gen. Randolph Alles, commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said the Marines' requirement for three times the 1,022 vehicles has been working its way up through Marine leaders. Brogan said most funding likely will be asked for in the fiscal 2008 supplemental spending request, although some funds could be sought in FY '07 reprogramming requests and even the second FY '07 supplemental request due in a few weeks.
Ellie