WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps wants billions of dollars in emergency funding so its troops operating outside bases in Iraq can travel in new armored vehicles instead of Humvees, according to Pentagon documents.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., supports the Marines- request and has proposed an amendment to add $1.5 billion in emergency funds this year to buy the vehicles for all the services. The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, said in a letter to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, that they can reduce casualties by 80 percent.

“The American public would embrace this in a heartbeat” if they understood the vehicles- safety record relative to Humvees, Biden said. The vehicles- V’shaped hulls deflect the force of roadside bombs; Humvees- flat bottoms take the brunt of blasts.

The military needs $4 billion this year and $4.4 billion in 2008 to pay for the 7,774 armored vehicles it needs, Biden said. The $1.5 billion he’s seeking now would allow 2,500 of the vehicles to be deployed by the end of the year.

Homemade bombs known as improvised explosive devices cause 70 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq, Pentagon records show. However, no Marines have died in attacks on the armored vehicles the military calls “mine-resistant ambush-protected” vehicles.

“That makes it a top priority to get them to the field as fast as possible,” said Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson, a spokesman for Conway.

Demand for the vehicles from field commanders has soared since last year. In their first urgent request, the Marines asked for 185 vehicles in May 2006. By November, the Army, Marines and Navy were seeking 4,060. It’s now 7,774.

If authorized, contractors could produce 1,200 of the vehicles per month by December, Conway’s letter says. The Marines want 3,700 of them, while the Army is seeking 2,500; the Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command have requested the rest.

The Pentagon has been reluctant to acknowledge the need for more of the vehicles because it has downplayed the costs of the war, Biden said. First, the Pentagon responded slowly to shortages of body armor, he said. Then, it was armored vehicles, and recently, it was the poor conditions for soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he said.

“Now it’s MRAPs,” Biden said.

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