PORTLAND – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday to reiterate her concerns that thousands of Humvees in Iraq lack sufficient armor.

Collins noted that the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which she sits, raised the issues of shortages of body armor and fortified Humvees in Iraq during a hearing in March. “I remain concerned that, more than eight months later, the Department of Defense still has been unable to ensure that our troops have the equipment they need to perform their mission as safely as possible,” Collins’ letter to Rumsfeld stated.

Collins, R-Maine, said she was troubled that the Army’s request for production of an additional 100 Humvees a month was made only after a soldier asked Rumsfeld during a town hall meeting in Kuwait about armor shortages in Iraq.

“Why was this request not placed earlier to increase fully armored Humvee production from 450 to 550 a month at a time when many of us brought to the Pentagon’s attention the shortages relayed to us by our constituent-troops and their families?” the senator’s letter said.