27 Oct 2008
USMC MRAP (left) and donkey in Iraq
DoD To Buy New Interim Vehicles
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps plan to rapidly develop and buy a fleet of 7- to 10-ton vehicles intended to fend off increasingly frequent roadside bombs yet be more mobile than MRAPs, a senior Pentagon official said.
To be developed along the fast-track model used for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, the so-called interim vehicles will meet an urgent need in Afghanistan for tough transports that can go off-road, he said.
Oshkosh’s Sandcat and Force Protection’s 7-ton Cheetah are among the contenders.
This decision shows that the MRAP, while certainly valuable in many situations, is not a complete solution.