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White House wants $5.3B for MRAPs in 2008

The White House this week sent Congress a $5.3 billion wartime spending request, dollars that would be used to purchase 1,520 new mine-resistant vehicles and increase production capacity on the heavily armored trucks.

This latest request for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles is part of a White House push to deliver 8,000 MRAPs to the Iraq and Afghan theaters by May 2008, according to the request, which was sent to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The Pentagon could eventually purchase up to 21,000 of the V-hulled platforms, defense officials have said.

“This request would provide the additional resources necessary to maximize the production of [MRAP] vehicles and rapidly field this capability to our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan,” President Bush wrote in a memo addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

If the Bush administration’s plans are approved by Congress, the request would swell the 2008 Iraq supplemental spending measure to $147 billion, according to the president’s memo.

A 13-page packet from the Office of Management and Budget, which features a detailed breakdown of the $5.3 billion proposal, accompanied Bush’s memo. A copy of the president’s memo and the OMB package were obtained by Defense News.

Along with buying 1,520 of the new MRAP vehicles, Tuesday’s request would be used to purchase “government-furnished equipment, continued technological development,” upgrades, and “support and transportation” for vehicles bought for the services and U.S. Special Operations Command, states a memo included in the packet signed by OMB Chief Robert Portman.

The Bush administration would spread the proposed $5.3 billion over the four services, defensewide accounts and SOCom.

The package proposes:

* $1.4 billion for Army procurement coffers, which would be used to purchase 627 additional MRAPs.

* $2.4 billion for the Marine Corps, which would go for 632 new trucks.

* $568 million for Air Force accounts that would be tapped for 261 new MRAPs.

Those amounts would be used to purchase other MRAP-related items, such as equipment, upgrades, logistical support, “battle damage assessment” and repairs, according to the request documents.

If Congress approves, SOCom would get $131 million and the Navy would receive $55 million, but those funds apparently would not be used to buy any actual vehicles.

The procurement funds each service, and SOCom, would receive under the administration’s plan also would be used to “maximize production capacity and accelerate fielding” of the heavily armored vehicles, according to the request.

Some defense observers, however, question whether the U.S. industrial base can meet the administration’s goal of delivering 8,000 MRAPs to the Iraq and Afghan theaters by next May.

“It’s unlikely that the MRAP program,” under the Pentagon’s current plans, “can be completed this year without some industrial base problems,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.

Specifically, hardened steel and the large tires that are fitted on MRAP vehicles could be in short supply, Thompson said.

“It appears we’re approaching the outer edges” of domestic suppliers’ ability to meet the administration’s goals, he added.

The second-largest chunk of the requested funds, $748 million, would be used to transport the new vehicles to theater and perform support functions. Those dollars also would be scattered across various service, Pentagon and SOCom accounts, with the Marine Corps and Army getting the largest shares, a combined $620 million, according to the documents.

The request also seeks $30 million in research-and-development funds to continue studying how the vehicles can guard against improvised explosive devices. Those funds would be split between the Army ($20 million) and the Navy ($10 million), according to the documents.

In his memo to Pelosi, Bush calls the vehicles and other items that would be bought under Tuesday’s MRAP production request “urgent and essential requirements.” Bush also urges the speaker to take action on the 2008 war supplemental, including the $5.3 billion MRAP request, “as soon as possible.”

A reporter’s calls to several top Democrats’ offices to gather reaction to the $5.3 billion request had not yet been returned at the time of posting.

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The funding, securing and politics of the MRAPs