Navistar, Oshkosh may get Pentagon orders for 2,510 trucks

Navistar International Corp. and Oshkosh Corp. are poised to get new orders for 2,510 blastproof trucks to be delivered to U.S. troops in Afghanistan by this summer, according to a Jan. 29 memo by the Pentagon's top weapons buyer.

The U.S. Department of Defense is seeking 1,050 Mine- Resistant Ambush-Protected, or MRAP, vehicles from Warrenville-based Navistar, and 1,460 all-terrain versions of the trucks called M-ATVs from Oshkosh, according to the memo signed by Ashton Carter.

While the memo says Carter approved the orders, the companies say they haven't yet received official bookings. The memo "appeared to be an internal Department of Defense document," Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said in an e-mail, declining to comment on the content. The memo was first reported on the InsideDefense.com Web site.

The U.S. Central Command has sought 10,600 more of the armored MRAP trucks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday at a Pentagon news briefing. About 6,600 of the additional vehicles would be M-ATVs and 4,000 would be MRAPs, Gates said. The Pentagon operates a fleet of 15,000 armored trucks in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

Oshkosh, based in the Wisconsin town of the same name, hasn't received additional orders yet, said spokesman John Daggett, who declined to comment on the Jan. 29 memo. Navistar has yet to receive a contract, spokeswoman Elissa Koc said.

Carter's memo also directs the Pentagon to buy 250 armored trucks from General Dynamics Corp. of Falls Church, Virginia, and 58 vehicles from BAE Systems Plc. of London.