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Firm guards niche in armored vehicles |
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By Roxana Tiron
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Posted: 07/24/07 07:40 PM [ET] |
As the Pentagon and Congress urgently try to provide as many mine-resistant vehicles as possible to troops in Iraq, one company is warning lawmakers that the military may end up buying vehicles that don’t all offer a consistent level of protection.
Additionally, it warns, the Pentagon could face an expensive logistical nightmare.
Force Protection Inc., of Ladson, S.C., quickly shot to fame with its V-shaped-hull vehicles, which can withstand blasts from the improvised explosive devices that are so common in Iraq. But the field is now getting crowded with other companies offering similar vehicles — and Force Protection is trying to assert its ascendancy.
The firm is pressing its case with lawmakers and Pentagon officials that “all V-shaped vehicles are not created equal,” said Michael Aldrich, the company’s vice president of marketing and government relations.
Company officials want to convince the Pentagon and lawmakers that Force Protection could license its original designs to other manufacturers rather than compete with a slew of vehicles that may not offer the same level of protection.
Indeed, based on the success of Force Protection’s Cougar and Buffalo vehicles in Iraq, the Pentagon has significantly stepped up its acquisition of the uniquely designed vehicles, which deflect and stifle shockwaves from explosions through a V-shaped undercarriage.
The Pentagon created a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle task force as a top priority under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and a whole host of defense contractors are expected to build up to 5,761 MRAP vehicles by February 2008. Force Protection will supply more than 30 percent of that order.
The Pentagon could buy as many as 17,000 of the V-shaped-hull vehicles in the coming years to replace Humvees.
But Force Protection, which is partnered with General Dynamics Corp.’s Land Systems business arm, is no longer the only company producing the vehicles. Six other contractors are also vying for MRAP orders after sending prototypes to military testers: Navistar International Corp.’s International Military and Government LLC; a General Dynamics Canadian unit; BAE Systems Plc.; Oshkosh Truck Corp.; Protected Vehicles Inc.; and Armor Holdings Inc.
Force Protection has already licensed its technical data package to General Dynamics as part of a joint venture, Force Dynamics, and Armor Holdings, which is manufacturing both Force Protection vehicles and its own competing design.
“We think they [the Pentagon] jump-started getting more protection to soldiers, but now it is time to focus on one design and we’re hopeful it’s going to be our design,” said Aldrich.
“Our concern is that everything is being lumped together under one program called MRAP, but they are all different vehicles which are inefficiently managed,” he added.
Aldrich also claimed that not all vehicles might perform as well as Force Protection’s against blasts. “They have been tested against a common set of standards and that is why they are being fielded,” he said. “But they have not been exposed to the real field.”
He explained that Force Protection vehicles can survive blasts well due to their geometry and a specialty-grade steel that bends rather than welds. The vehicles also stand three feet off the ground and are very heavy to better withstand blasts.
If the Pentagon deploys different kinds of vehicles, however, sustaining them on the battlefield could become cumbersome, given the different parts needed. According to Pentagon numbers, 72 percent of the total life-cycle cost for the MRAPs goes toward maintaining and sustaining the vehicles, while the rest is for the actual purchase. On a $4 billion MRAP purchase, the life cycle cost would be as much as $10 billion.
The cost of one MRAP vehicle ranges between $1 million and $1.2 million. The vehicles are heavy and have a high fuel consumption of 5-10 miles per gallon, depending on their size. MRAPs come in three categories, ranging from a lighter utility vehicle to a large mine-protected clearance vehicle.
“It’s much too heavy, it doesn’t perform well off the road, and it’s a logistical nightmare in terms of [the] fuel support it needs,” said retired Gen. Jack Keane. “We are talking about tanks on wheels here.”
“The life-cycle costs and logistics infrastructure is going to be very expensive,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill. “But we can absorb the cost easier than it is for a family to absorb another loss of life.”
Together with Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Graham filed an amendment to the currently shelved defense authorization bill to provide up to $24 billion to buy additional MRAP vehicles.
Biden, a presidential contender, on Monday met with executives from Force Protection and Protected Vehicles Inc, also a South Carolina company.
But Graham said that the consequences of having more than one source for building the vehicles could be beneficial.
“You’ll have different minds looking at ways to make this better,” Graham said. “More companies will ensure that innovation is alive because they will be competing for a share of the market.”
For example, Navistar won a $414 million contract for 755 MRAPs on Friday, following another contract in May for 1,200 of the ambush-protected vehicles. The company said it works to develop vehicles according to the rigorous Pentagon specifications.
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, acknowledged that the maintenance of these vehicles is going to be “substantial.” Last week, Congress approved a Pentagon reprogramming request of $1.2 billion to buy more MRAPs.
The lawmaker has also expressed concern that there won’t be enough spare parts available for all the vehicles. Murtha and other lawmakers are criticizing the Pentagon for not moving fast enough with its MRAP acquisition even though requests have been coming from Iraq since 2004.
“They are coming to us with a program request that they should have asked for two years ago,” Murtha said in an interview.
“This is the most screwed-up Defense Department I have ever seen,” said Murtha, who acknowledged that Gates has started to make a difference.
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