MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – To mark the delivery of the first Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) this week, Oshkosh [OSK] came to the Modern Day Marine technology expo to show its customers what their new JLTV would look like topped with a huge cannon.
Oshkosh began delivering the first low-rate initial production vehicles to the Army this week and will continue delivery of groups of vehicles at the end of each month until production ramps up to full-rate, Dave Dierson, vice president of joint programs, told Defense Daily.
The vehicle on display at Modern Day Marine was topped with an Electro Optic Systems R400S-MK2 remote weapon station armed with an Orbital ATK [OA] M230LF 30 mm lightweight automatic chain gun. The M230 is a version of the auto-cannon mounted to the chin turret of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
“We are trying to demonstrate and show we are really system agnostic,” he said. “We are a vehicle manufacturer. We’ve been building trucks for 99 years. … We don’t make weapon systems. We don’t make radios. We make severe-duty trucks. We’ve got the flexibility and the capability to integrate a variety of C4 and weapon systems on the vehicle, whether it’s domestic or international customers.”
Oshkosh anticipates a requirement for a medium-caliber weapon aboard JLTV in the coming years and took the opportunity to outfit such a cannon on one of its production-representative test vehicles for its main customers’ annual trade shows, Dierson said. Oshkosh is not married to either the EOS weapon station or the Orbital ATK chain gun. Dierson also mentioned Moog [MOG.A] and Kongsberg as weapon manufacturers whose products could just as easily be integrated with JLTV.
“It’s an evolution as we see it of a potential capability on the vehicle,” Dierson said. “There are a lot of different weapon system manufacturers out there. … We’re agnostic. If the government decides it wants to have Company X, Y or Z, we’ll say ‘Fine, we will work with Company X, Y or Z or we will integrate it directly onto the vehicle.’”
Oshkosh in 2015 performed live-fire testing of the M230 aboard its Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) all-terrain vehicle (ATV), which is the heavier forbear of JLTV. Adding heavy firepower to JLTV brings it in line with the requirements for the Army’s former Light Reconnaissance Vehicle (LRV) that was a standalone program until it was absorbed by JLTV to increase commonality and save money.
“No, this isn’t in the U.S. inventory at this time,” he said. “We are just showing we have the capability to put other weapons on it because we know that our vehicles are going to be in the inventory 20, 30, 40 years so what we’ve developed and designed into the vehicle is room for growth. As missions change, needs change, the vehicle will be able to keep pace.”
Dierson said Marines at Quantico were drawn in by the big-gun advertisement for their eventual Humvee replacement. The service plans to purchase about 5,000 JLTVs. The officials Oshkosh needs to impress are those at the JLTV joint program office, staffed mainly by the Army, which will buy 10 times as many trucks.
The Army will get a look at the vehicle-weapon combo next week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exposition in downtown Washington, D.C. A good sign the Army is pleased with JLTV production and testing so far came Monday when it exercised a $42 million option to buy more vehicles and equipment package. The order is the third the Army has made since the initial $6 billion contract was awarded in August 2015. The work will carry Oshkosh’s Wisconsin production line through November 2017.