Pentagon Chasing Money For Armored Trucks

The Pentagon wants to use money from its existing budget, including the Army's wartime equipment-repair program, to cover the $1.2 billion it needs for new bomb-resistant vehicles.

In a new document to be delivered to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, obtained by The Associated Press, the Pentagon says it wants to revise its current spending plan because the new heavily armored vehicles are needed urgently by troops in Iraq.

"In order to ensure that we get as many of these life-saving vehicles to our troops in combat as quickly as we can, Secretary Gates last night asked Congress for permission to reprogram nearly $1.2 billion in our 2007 budget so that we can produce thousands more MRAPS (armored vehicles) recognizing that the need for these vehicles supersedes all other programs right now," said Pentagon's press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Overall, the Army wants to spend about $800 million to buy mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicles that have been saving lives in roadside bomb attacks and from IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The Navy would get about $226 million to buy the vehicles on behalf of the Marines and special operations forces would spend about $110 million.

"These additional funds will enable the department (to) maximize production capacity to enable delivery of the MRAP vehicles to the theater in the earliest possible timeframe," the Defense Department says in its request to lawmakers.

To cover the cost, the military proposes drawing money from various accounts used to support non-deployed troops, including $100 million for Air Force depot maintenance. However, the biggest chunk — $663 million — will be taken from the Army program that refurbishes equipment for units between deployments.

According to the Pentagon document, the maintenance workload for this particular effort has decreased because combat tours increased this year from 12 to 15 months.

Congress is expected to bless the plan.

"Our committee will continue funding the MRAP needs of our brave service men and women to the fullest extent possible, and I am happy to see the (Defense Department) finally acknowledge the true magnitude of this need," Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement released Wednesday.

The procurement of heavily armored vehicles has been a politically sensitive issue, with Republicans and Democrats alike demanding the Pentagon do more to protect troops from roadside bombs.

"This is an extremely aggressive program and the Defense Department s
accepting risk here. We may encounter manufacturing issues as we
accelerate," says John Young of the MRAP Task Force.

"But Secretary Gates and the entire Defense Department leadership team agreed we should accept these risks in order to provide more capable vehicles to our troops as fast as possible."

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Capitol Hill with Gen. George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, and Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, to brief members on the effort.

On July 11, the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which includes high-ranking representatives from all of the military services, agreed that the military needs to buy as many of the reinforced vehicles as the contractors could churn out.

The group previously endorsed the need for nearly 7,800 MRAPs at a projected cost of about $8.4 billion.