By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

The U.S. Marine Corps has announced that it will buy a third fewer mine-resistant vehicles than it had originally planned for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael M. Aldrich, vice president of marketing and government relations at Ladson-based manufacturer Force Protection Inc., said he didn’t expect the reduction of what had been a $20 billion Pentagon program to have an immediate impact on his company’s operations.

He said the company expects to make another big delivery of two classes of armored vehicles to the Marine Corps within the next few days and that announcements like the one made by the Marine Corps last week doesn’t faze the company or its joint venture, Force Dynamics.

“We have been in the business of responding to urgent universal need statements from the Marine Corps since late 2003, and we have seen ground commanders ‘ebb and flow’ (their defense) requirements throughout that period of time,” he said.

While Force Protection and other armored vehicle manufacturers have grown accustomed to seeing orders for their vehicles grow in recent years, Aldrich said “this is an obvious statement by Marine ground commanders that operations in Al Anbar province are currently successful.

“Since the Marine Corps has been using Cougar vehicles about 12 months longer than any other service, and have more vehicles per capita boots-on-the-ground, it is not surprising that they would take the lead on this communication,” he said.

Mike Resler of the Charleston Defense Contractors Association also said he doubted there will be a noticeable local impact from the Marine Corps’ announcement.

“I am told by persons very close to this work that if all orders from all branches of the Armed Services for new MRAP vehicles were to stop today, we would have enough work to keep the current labor force in the Charleston area working for a couple years,” he said.

Aldrich also said that the Commandant of the Marine Corps reiterated his belief that the mine-resistant armor protected vehicle fleet will ultimately impact other global missions to which the Corps is committed.

“That is why we are about to start production of our Cheetah vehicle line—a lighter, faster, lower-profile, more-mobile, and just-as-well-protected (vehicle) as our Cougar MRAP,” Aldrich said.