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The U.S. Army has awarded contracts for producing more than 8000 mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles to three vendors, selected from a list of six companies and teams that submitted vehicles for testing. They are Navistar International, BAE Systems and Force Protection that will produce 2400 MRAP vehicles. These new contracts will bring the total of MRAPs on order to 8800. To finance this next purchase, the DoD is expected to ask Congress for an additional $8 billion. 

MRAP vehicles are a family of armored fighting vehicles designed to survive IED attacks and ambushes. IEDs cause the majority (63%) of U.S. deaths in Iraq. MRAP vehicles are usually built with a V-shaped hull that assists deflection of a mine, or IED blast, away from the vehicle's interior keeping the passengers safe and the vehicle intact. This design dates to the 1970s when it was first implemented by South African company, Land Systems OMC, in the Casspir vehicle. Derivatives of these vehicles have since been used by various military forces around the world.

In the past year, 375 MRAPs have been shipped to Iraq, including 42 of the 14-ton, four-wheel-drive category I MRAPs and 13 of the 24-ton, six-wheel-drive category II MRAPs.

The MRAP program has been criticized because of the lack of a common design, which presents a wartime logistical challenge, its inability to withstand EFP attacks and the relatively few number of units that have been delivered to Iraq and Afghanistan, despite large orders. This selection of the three winners for MRAP I is distinct from the ongoing MRAP II competition, in which more than six different MRAP makers submitted either proposals, vehicles or both to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., by the Oct. 1 deadline.

In the MRAP II competition, DoD asked industry to improve upon MRAP I survivability. MRAP II vehicles are required to defend against deadly explosively formed penetrator (EFP) weapons attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. MRAP II contracts are expected to be awarded in the coming months.