Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas, in a Sept. 12 reprogramming request, says  DOD will move $218.7 million between its fiscal year 2006 accounts to support the Defense Department's efforts to counter improvised explosive devices, weapons that are the scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nearly $1 million from that total is “being reprogrammed to finance P-3 aircraft modifications/upgrades in support of counter-IED operations,” states the reprogramming request.

The bulk of the increases -- $217.8 million -- will be used “to procure IED defeat equipment in order to provide counter-IED capability for U.S. forces,” states the reprogramming request. “The capability being acquired is urgently needed to counter the use by terrorist organizations of improvised explosive devices.”

Christine DeVries, spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization, said, “We never talk about the details of any of the technological things we're working on.”

Earlier this year, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England directed each of the military services to fund a handful of specific programs related to defeating roadside bombs in their six-year budget plans. The Navy, in particular, was directed to fund counter-IED efforts involving robotic systems, the convoy-planning tool software program, the CREW 3 (counter radio controlled improvised explosive device electronic warfare) program, and the combined explosive exploitation cell support effort.

The Navy in recent years has modified its P-3C Orion aircraft with a number of new technologies to expand its set of missions beyond maritime patrol to include ground-based operations. Through the P-3 Aircraft Improvement Program (AIP), the sea service has added long-range electro-optical video imaging systems, high-resolution infrared imaging systems, and synthetic as well as inverse synthetic-aperture radars -- tools that gave the aircraft intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance utility in operations over Afghanistan in 2001.  

The new P-3 modifications presumably would add to the aircraft's portfolio of capabilities that directly support ground forces.