|
Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Drum, N.Y., patrol in the Jalrez Valley in Afghanistan's Wardak Province, accompanied by a Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicle.
Paul Mann (wearing red hat), manager of the MRAP vehicle program, talks with workers There are more than 15,000 MRAPs in war zones. They have been credited with saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives since 2007. |
By RUSTY DENNEN
It was a challenge unprecedented in the annals of modern military acquisition: Get thousands of large, new armored vehicles built, shipped and in the hands of troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And get them rolling within a matter of months, rather than years--warp speed when it comes to military equipment procurement.
The sense of urgency was palpable because Humvees in use since the 1990 Gulf War were vulnerable to IEDs--improvised explosive devices--with deadly results.
That was the dilemma facing Paul D. Mann, manager of the mine-resistant armor-protected vehicle joint program headquartered at Quantico's Marine Corps Systems Command in 2006.
Today, there are more than 15,000 MRAPs--Mine Resistant Armor Protected--vehicles, in the war zone. These hulking steel beasts are credited with saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
"When we started, the industrial capacity focused on the MRAP vehicles was nonexistent," Mann, 47, of Stafford County said in an interview this week.
Engineers and contractors were looking for a new type of armored vehicle that would address the most deadly threat to troops--roadside bombs. They wanted a bigger, heavier vehicle, higher off the the ground than a Humvee, with a V-shaped hull to help deflect the blast.
One that was, in Mann's words, "significantly more survivable."
And the military needed it yesterday.
So Mann and his team, which serves all branches of the military, figured they could speed the process by "buying any and every vehicle that met our performance requirement."
That, in turn, "enabled industry throughout the U.S. to come online to support this very high-demand product."
Under a $25 billion program, multiple manufacturers began producing MRAPs, which began pouring into the war zone by late 2007 and early 2008.
With the ramp-up came reports from the field that they were working. Fewer soldiers were being killed or maimed in IED attacks, though exact figures are unavailable.
In a speech earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said IEDs remain the top threat as the war shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan, where the new-est generation MRAP-type vehicle, the M-ATV, is being deployed.
"In the next year, we will field thousands of these life-saving vehicles," Gates said, in a nod to Mann and his team.
M-ATVs are more agile and lighter than standard MRAPs so they can navigate rough mountainous terrain where they're more vulnerable to attack.
"We want to have off-road performance focused on suspension upgrades," Mann said.
There are two other vehicles in the MRAP family--an urban-combat operations and ambulance version, and one for mine and IED clearance and ordnance disposal.
Last week, Mann received the Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer Memorial Award at the Pentagon. The award was created this year to honor extraordinary effort in military acquisition.
Meyer, the father of the Navy's Aegis weapons system, died in September and was a mentor to both Mann and his father, Walter H. Mann Jr., a retired Navy master chief. Paul Mann had worked as a program manager and systems engineer with Aegis.
Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said of Paul Mann: "His efforts and the vehicles his team delivers have directly led to the saving of countless lives and our ability to accomplish our objectives in this time of war."
Mann called the compliment "a testimony to the entire team, a seven-day-a-week operation for three years. I know he knows we're simply doing our job. We just did it bigger than most."
He added, "I was at the right place at the right time. Every star that could have lined up" did.
Hundreds of people locally--staffers at Quantico and other locations, military contractors, engineers and technicians at venues such as the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren--were involved, he said.
"This was such a massive effort. Congress took a risk, whole [defense] departments lined up to make decisions as fast as humanly possible. Industry did an outstanding job. We got to enjoy a hyper-speed environment because everyone wanted this to be successful."
As for the award, "The recognition and all that is nice, but all I want to do is keep on working."
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
| Position: Joint program manager of the MRAP vehicles program at Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico. Age: 47 Family: Married, with three sons Home: Stafford County. A Navy brat, he lived in 13 locations during his father's military career. Education: Bachelor's degree in mathematics, University of La Verne in California; master's in public administration, American University; graduate of Federal Executive Institute; completed executive fellowships at Harvard and Georgetown universities. Experience: Among his civil-service duties, Mann served as a division director of the Naval Sea Systems Command, led efforts to introduce inter-operable warfare systems to the fleet and worked on air defense capability. |
