A year ago the U.S. market for specialized blast-resistant military trucks was worth just a few hundred million dollars annually. Then in May Secretary of Defense Robert Gates declared the so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected trucks his number one weapons-buying priority and promised to order as many as 22,000 in the next four years. The total value? As much as $20 billion.
Almost overnight, every company with any automotive experience launched crash programs for MRAP designs. Competition has been fierce, with some of the biggest U.S. truck firms, Oshkosh for instance, losing out to small Mom-
and-Pop rivals including Ladson, S.C.-based Force Protection, Inc (five-day stock price pictured in blue). One surprise bidder was Protected Vehicle, Inc., founded in 2005 by former Force Protection president Garth Barrett and operating in Charleston, just miles away from Barrett’s former employer. While Force Protection enjoyed steady success with its Cougar and Buffalo designs, PVI struggled. In 2007 FP won around 2,000 MRAP orders and expanded its workforce and factory space; PVI got fewer than 100 orders and laid half of its 500 employees in August. Now Force Protection is poised to deliver the faltering firm a death blow, Forbes.com reports:
Force Protection Inc., which makes mine-resistant vehicles for the military, has filed a lawsuit claiming a nearby competitor stole trade secrets. The lawsuit filed Tuesday names Protected Vehicles Inc. and its founder, Garth Barrett, a former Force Protection president who resigned two years ago and started the new business about 10 miles away. The suit, which also names two other Protected Vehicles executives, claims while at Force Protection, Barrett made a copy of his computer hard drive “containing trade secrets and confidential information belonging to Force Protection.”
Related:
MRAP contenders whittled down
How to build a bazillion MRAPs
MRAP losers keep mum
Force Protection ramps up
Afghans get MRAPs, too
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