The U.S. Defense Department has asked Congress for nearly 750 million U.S. dollars to urgently airlift armored vehicles to American troops facing roadside bombs in Iraq, the newspaper USA Today reported Wednesday.
The emergency funding request would allow the U.S. military to fly many of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to troops rather than send them by ship, which takes weeks, the newspaper said.
The flight takes 13 hours, allowing for same-day delivery, the Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas was quoted as saying.
The transportation money is part of an emergency request for 5.3 billion dollars for the Pentagon's MRAP program for the fiscal year beginning in October.
All told, the military is seeking about 12 billion dollars through 2008 for about 8,000 vehicles, whose raised chassis and V-shaped hulls protect troops against roadside bombs, the report said.
The military's Transportation Command estimates that it will cost 135,000 dollars to send each MRAP by plane compared with 18,000 dollars by ship. An Air Force C-17 aircraft can carry as many as three MRAP vehicles.
Some MRAPs are already being flown to Iraq, and the emergency request would fund the delivery of the vehicles as quickly as they are produced.
But a Pentagon spokeswoman told the newspaper that eventually more MRAPs will be sent by ship when production of them increases.
Source: Xinhua
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