WASHINGTON — The Defense Department put American troops in Iraq at risk by awarding contracts for badly needed armored vehicles to companies that failed to deliver them on schedule, according to a review by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

The June 27 report, obtained yesterday by the Associated Press, examined 15 contracts worth $2.2 billion dollars awarded since 2000 to Force Protection, Inc., and Armor Holdings, Inc.

The auditors found several contracts issued by the Marine Corps on a sole-source basis to Force Protection even though it knew there were other manufacturers that might have supplied the vehicles in a more timely fashion. The Marine Corps determined that Force Protection was the only supplier that could meet the urgent delivery schedule for the vehicles.

The inspector general’s report, however, concludes otherwise. It says the company “did not perform as a responsible contractor and repeatedly failed to meet contractual delivery schedules for getting the vehicles to the theater.”

The report also criticizes the Army’s decision to award a contract for armor kits to Simula Aerospace and Defense Group, a subsidiary of Armor Holdings.

Simula did not meet the government’s definition of a “responsible prospective contractor,” according to the report, and it lacked the mechanisms necessary to ensure proper delivery of the kits, which were needed to make Humvees less vulnerable to roadside bombs.

The Army received kits “with missing and unusable components, which increased the kit installation time and required additional reinspection of kits,” it said. Overall, the problems “resulted in increased risk to the lives of soldiers,” the report states.