3 Firms Win JLTV Contract
The U.S. Army has chosen three industry teams to receive $60 million, 27-month contracts to develop technology for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle: BAE Systems-Navistar, General Tactical Vehicles (GTV), and Lockheed Martin-BAE Systems, according to an Oct. 29 DoD press release.
The choice of these three to further develop plans for the blast-resistant, off-road-capable vehicles will not disqualify other bidders when it comes time to award System Design and Development (SDD) contracts, Army officials have said.
The competition lasted more than two years and drew prototypes from at least seven industry teams. The winners' names went for approval to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Oct. 24, but the Army twice delayed the announcement, U.S. industry sources and analysts said.
The delay was due at least in part to the Army's last-minute attempts to forestall protests of the award by the losing bidders, said an Army officer familiar with the process.
"The contracting process requires the Army to give an explanation to those who do not win as to why specifically they did not win," the officer said.
He said protests may yet come, especially since more than one dozen firms and teams submitted bids. Such protests have slowed the Air Force's CSAR-X helicopter and tanker aircraft contracts.
The awards will follow a competition that lasted more than two years and drew prototypes from at least seven industry teams.
SDD contracts and, ultimately, production orders will go to a yet-to-be-determined number of firms. The vehicles are to enter service in 2013, and Army plans call for buying 1,385 JTLVs and 755 trailers by 2015.
The Army's five-year plan calls for spending a total of $1.3 billion in 2013-15 to buy JTLVs.
"I think that JLTV is one Army program that you can count on going forward as planned, because Iraq has been a real eye opener with regard to force protection," said Loren Thompson, vice president of the Lexington Institute, Arlington, Va. "We have to have a better-protected light utility vehicle for the field, and JLTV is the only real candidate."
The Army hopes it can start deploying JLTVs even earlier than currently planned.
"What we are looking for is a technical readiness level for integration," U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Scott West, who runs the Army's TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, said in an Oct. 7 address at the Association of the United States Army's annual convention. "So if they come in and the technology proves to be TRL [technology readiness level] six or higher, and it meets the payload, protection and performance requirements, the program could accelerate."
Industry Winners
General Tactical Vehicles, a joint venture between General Dynamics (GD) Land Systems and Humvee-maker AM General, offered a 10-ton JLTV prototype with two overlapping hulls, 30 inches of ground clearance and semi-active suspension.
"GD and AM General are the team to beat because they combine the company with legacy knowledge of the Humvee with the company that is already the Army's biggest contractor," Thompson said.
The GTV vehicle has a 300-horsepower engine with a high power-to-weight ratio.
"We have a 27- to 29-horsepower-to-ton ratio, which gives us the performance characteristics we did not want to lose by increasing payload and protection," said GTV's director of business development, Jim Flynn. "There is growth in the program to make it electric drive that is hybrid-capable if needed."
"The GTV solution meets or exceeds the JLTV protection, payload and performance requirements, offering a low-risk, innovative, adaptable family of vehicles and trailers with commonality of components exceeding 95-percent, resulting in speed to production and low life-cycle cost," said Don Howe, GTV senior program director.
The Lockheed Martin-BAE team delivered three prototype JLTVs to the Army led program with variable ride-height suspension, a unique hull design and lightweight armor composites.
"What the Army saw in the Lockheed team was the opportunity to get new ideas," Thompson said. "The virtue of the Lockheed team is that it combines new ideas with all of the vehicle depth and expertise of Armor Holdings, which is part of BAE."
The BAE-Navistar team had a JLTV prototype on display at the Association of the United States Army's annual convention. It was equipped with six-inch-thick B-kit armor.
"What we are doing with the B-kit armor is to demonstrate MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected]-level protection on a JLTV," said Peter Ciriscioli, director of JLTV programs for BAE.
Northrop-Oshkosh, which built the only JLTV prototype with a hybrid propulsion system as its primary mode, may compete for an SDD contract, an industry source said.
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