March 27 is the new proposal deadline for the engineering and manufacturing development contract for the Army-Marine Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
The Army Jan. 26 issued the long-awaited request for proposals for the major acquisition program for a new generation wheeled vehicle to replace many of the services’ Humvee fleets (Defense Daily, Jan. 27). The JLTV would offer superior protection and performance than the Humvee.
The deadline moved from March 13 and was formalized in an amendment that includes additional proposal requirements for offerors to submit agreements with Non-Government Organizations, which will be involved a Technology Readiness Assessment in support of a Milestone B decision.
The amendment updates the classified annex concerning force protection.
Three industry teams are considering proposals. These teams took part in the 27-month JLTV Technology Demonstration phase: General Tactical Vehicles (GTV), a team comprised of General Dynamics [GD] and AM General; a Lockheed Martin [LMT]-BAE Systems team; and a BAE–Navistar International Corp. [NAVZ] team.
In June, the Army said it expects to award as many as three firm-fixed-price base contracts. Each contract awardee must provide 22 prototype vehicles as well as other items.
The services said any proposal of more than $65 million for the base contract will be considered “unaffordable,” the amendment said.
Affordability must be balanced with achieving protection, payload and performance. The Average Unit Manufacturing cost target for base vehicle configurations across the family of vehicles in production is $250,000 in fiscal year 2011 constant dollars, excluding B-kit armor and other identified kits.
The cost target for B-kit armor is 65,000 in FY11 constant dollars.
The amendment also said the source selection evaluation will consider the proposed JLTV General Purpose vehicle at a target Production UMC of $260,000 based on the production quantities and assumptions provided in Attachment KK.
Looking ahead to the initial production contract, currently planned for a FY 2015 solicitation, the government intends to award one, firm, fixed-price contract of a base three-year Low Rate Initial Production contract with an option of a five-year, multi-year contract for full-rate production. The contract would include a separately priced firm-fixed price option for purchasing technical data packages with the appropriate data rights to allow for future production competition as well as spares.
Evaluation criteria for the production phase have yet to be finalized.