Mine-resistant vehicle co. expanding

Mine-resistant vehicle co. expanding

	Published : Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:05 By : Agencies Print this Story

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina company that makes mine-resistant military vehicles expects to win more work from the Pentagon and is buying land to expand research and training.

Force Protection Inc., which makes the vehicles along with Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp., told shareholders in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that it is spending $4.1 million to buy land, buildings and equipment about 30 miles northeast of Charleston for research, development and training.

'We see an enormous need to do our own independent testing,' Force Protection spokesman Mike Aldrich said Friday. 'To do that, we have to move to a secure site off of the manufacturing plant.'

At the same time, he said, the company needs to train technicians to put into the field to help maintain the equipment.

The company also is expecting a surge in vehicle production. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a $1.5 billion proposal to accelerate production of mine-resistant and ambush-protected vehicles.

That plan would cut six months from a production schedule, essentially providing 2,500 vehicles to the military faster.

However, the proposal is tied to a bill calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, which President Bush has threatened to veto. Senate and House Democrats lack the votes needed to override a veto.

Force Protection Inc. already planned to increase production sharply to 400 vehicles a month.

'We have shown the government a plan to get well over 400 a month,' Aldrich said.

By the end of May, the company will concentrate solely on making the mine-resistant and ambush-protected vehicles the Pentagon wants.

'Getting the MRAP into Al Anbar province is my number one unfilled war-fighting requirement at this time,' Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps. commandant, wrote in a memo earlier this month to Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The letter was provided by U.S. Sen. Joe Biden's office.

The Delaware Democrat pushed the provision to speed up vehicle production and it easily passed. Biden said the vehicles help prevent deaths and injuries, and the legislation should be passed separately.

'We have got to get these things built,' Biden said Friday. 'It's a matter of life and death. These things work.'