ArmyTimes: No MRAP II orders?

Via Army Times and writers Kris Osborn and Rob Curtis:

When the Pentagon places its final orders for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, it will buy first-generation 14- to 24-ton MRAPs with extra armor, not the 30-ton MRAP IIs, DoD and Marine Corps officials said.

The story does not identify the officials who made the statements, so the story amounts to a rumor with potentially excellent substantiation.

While I've written that I would not be surprised to see small orders come out of the MRAP II program, with the idea of obtaining highly blast-resistant vehicles for specialized tasks, I can imagine a rationale for letting MRAP II die on the vine. It comes down to the same type of justification for the JLTV program. The JLTV vehicles are likely to end up with less armor than MRAPs simply because of the weight required for heavy/advanced armor. The strategic emloyment of the JLTV will forbid carrying around that much weight. In like manner, the DoD may see the existing MRAP vehicles as more suited to the mission than the proposed MRAP II vehicles despite the protections the DoD requested for MRAP II.

I can imagine this sort of news--even before it is absolutely confirmed--would bitterly disappoint companies that have poured big bucks into R&D and prototypes based on the hope of a profitable contract further down the line. I guess you just have to be willing to play the game that way.

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The story also confirmed that Blackwater's Grizzly was ruled out of the MRAP II competition because of a problem with the armor in the forward part of the vehicle. This aspect of the story is puzzling to some degree. If the DoD doesn't intend to order any vehicles from the MRAP II competition then Blackwater should be content to cut its losses with the early exit. But the story states that Blackwater is considering protesting their ouster because the front end armor had passed earlier requirements and testing.