DefenseNews.com: U.S. to order 3,000 additional MRAPs in December

The Pentagon plans to order about 3,000 more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles the week of Dec. 17, marking the largest MRAP order to date, Pentagon officials said.

The 3,000 will be split up among the three main MRAP vendors chosen by the U.S. Defense Department during the down-select process in October: Force Protection, Navistar International and BAE Systems.
(DefenseNews.com)

The three vendors identified match the three who won contracts last time contracts were announced, which continues to leave PVI and Ceradyne out in the cold. I have no evidence that this order reflects the outcome of the MRAP II testing program.

This from an earlier story by DefenseNews.com's Kris Osborn:

Although MRAP II is a separate procurement effort, technological improvement and survivability improvements will be added to MRAPs as they are produced, the senior official said.
(DefenseNews.com)

Also check out Kris Osborn's story on the other military vehicle programs learning from the Iraq experience and the MRAP program. Plans are in the works to suspect seats from the ceiling of the vehicle to prevent certain types of shock wave injuries.

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