The Pentagon will deliver only 1,500 mine-proof armored vehicles to Iraq by the end of the year, less than half the number promised a month ago, a spokesman said. Press secretary Geoff Morrell said the Pentagon has not been able line up enough vendors to meet its goal of delivering 3,500 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles by the end of the year. “The production is not proceeding at the pace to meet the goal which we stated,” Morell said. “If we could get 1,500 to theater by the end of this year that would be a positive development,” he said. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the MRAPs the Defense Department's top acquisition priority after learning that not a single marine has been killed in one. On July 18, the Pentagon announced plans to use a $1.2 billion boost in funding accelerate production of the million dollar vehicles. Assistant Secretary of Defense John Young said then that the Pentagon hoped to produce 3,900 MRAPs by the end of the year, and deliver 3,500 of them to Iraq. But Morrell said that goal was “a best case scenario.” He said the Pentagon had hoped to find nine vendors to produce the vehicles, but so far had only six. The Marines have only about 200 of the vehicles in theater. The army, which had resisted buying more because of their greater weight, has only about 300 similarly designed armored vehicles in Iraq, Pentagon officials said.
