Washington, D.C. ? The White House soon will ask Congress for $5.3 billion for bomb-resistant vehicles, a top Pentagon official told a House panel Tuesday.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told the House Budget Committee that the request for the vehicles – whose V-shape undercarriages deflect roadside bomb blasts – will help keep production lines humming at full capacity.

The funding comes on top of $5.6 billion already approved for 6,400 mine-resistant vehicles and will be added to the Pentagon’s $141.7 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The additional money would help pay for those vehicles and purchase another 1,520 of them.

England said other costs, especially President Bush’s ongoing strategy of increased troop levels in Baghdad and Anbar province, will require additional funding because Bush has not asked for funding past September for the so-called surge in operations.