The Army recently awarded contracts to International Truck and Engine and Lockheed Martin to produce a "demonstrator" prototype for a future humvee.

The ongoing insurgency in Iraq is preventing Army contractors from working on rebuilding the war-torn nation and is having devastating effects on two vital public resources -- electricity and oil production, an administration official told a Senate subcommittee last week.

The Army has accelerated the delivery of additional armor for soldiers that will protect their sides, and the service hopes to have 100,000 sets available by June, according to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, deputy for acquisition and systems management.

A Marine Corps general last week testified his service has ensured all Marines in theater have the "best armor protection available," but noted the full requirement of side Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) plates will not be met until April.

In the Army's continuing efforts to maintain intelligence superiority over insurgent forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, service officials have taken initial steps to develop an advanced version of its Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS).

The Army is issuing additional armor for soldiers that will protect their sides and increase by 5 pounds the amount of weight they carry, the service's top civilian said last week.

The Army and the Marines are pursuing funding and agreements that would start a new program in 2007 to replace the High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle with a more survivable vehicle, officials from both services said last week.

Two major Pentagon reprogramming actions in November and December resulted in an infusion of nearly $497 million into the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force -- the Defense Department's primary program for combating roadside bombs that have plagued troops in Iraq.

The deputy commander of Training and Doctrine Command is urging Army leaders to look high and low for new and improved force protection tactics, technologies and vehicles that could supplant some of the service's ubiquitous humvees, according to sources and documents.

Fallujah has shown signs of progress a year after U.S.-led forces battled insurgents controlling the city, reducing much of it to ruins, but it remains a dangerous place where U.S. troops continue to come under attack, according to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee.

The Army is applying lessons learned by Stryker brigades to its efforts to upgrade the vehicles, a service official said last week.

The Marine Corps plans to buy 38 more Cougar armored vehicles by early 2006 to protect Marines against roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to develop a detection system for unmanned vehicles that would uncover roadside improvised explosive devices based on chemical vapor signatures, according to a recent solicitation.

The Marine Corps headquarters office that handles physical security issues has been reorganized, according to an unclassified administrative message issued this month.