WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2007 – The Defense Department is expected to top its year-end goal of delivering 1,500 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to Iraq as soon as today, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters today.

Morrell’s announcement came as DoD announced the award of just under $2.66 billion to purchase an additional 3,126 of the heavily armored, V-hulled vehicles by July 31.

The latest MRAP contract, announced yesterday, will bring to 11,900 the number of vehicles under contract. “Our objective is to build at least 15,374,” Morrell said. (continue reading…)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2007 – No injuries to marine mammals have been attributed to sonar use since the Navy began taking additional steps to minimize harm to such animals, a Navy official said yesterday.

“Right now, the Navy employs 29 mitigation measures to assure that we don’t hurt marine mammals when we’re out doing our sonar exercises,” Navy Rear Adm. Lawrence S. Rice, director of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness, said in a conference call with online journalists and “bloggers.”

Navy officials said the 29 additional measures were put into place in January. (continue reading…)

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Dec. 18, 2007 – In a first for Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, the Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team unveiled a new women’s shelter during a ribbon-cutting ceremony here Dec. 13.

Kapisa Gov. Khuweja Abubaker was on hand, as well as Safura Kohistani, the province’s director of women’s affairs, and Bagram PRT members.

The purpose of the shelter is to preserve a woman’s honor, said Army Capt. Jordan Berry, the PRT’s civil affairs team leader for the province.

“A woman who is a victim of domestic violence cannot go to the police or another man for help, or she will lose honor with her family,” he said. “The shelter is run by women and staffed by women.”

Any woman who is a victim of domestic violence or who is temporarily displaced from her home or family is eligible to use the shelter, Berry said. (continue reading…)