Bloomberg: Armor Holdings Could Boost Humvee Armor Output 22%
Contractors that sell armor to the Pentagon to reinforce its vehicles in Iraq say that they are able to increase their production almost immediately, if asked. In answering a question from a soldier in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in a much-quoted response that the Department of Defense was doing the best it could and that the slow pace of armoring vehicles was due to “a matter of physics” rather than money. While armor production isn’t the only factor involved in hardening trucks in Iraq, Armor Holdings, the sole supplier of the armor in question, said they could do an additional 50 to 100 vehicles per month and that the Pentagon had been told this.