Ford Motor Co. [F] and its team of Raytheon [RTN] and
Future Force have decided not to bid for the Army-Marine Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).
“Ford has a long history of working with the U.S. government, and we continue to look at new ideas and projects,” said Michael Levine, a Ford spokesman. “Ford, Raytheon and Future Force–the three organizations that were asked to work together on a proposal–have reviewed the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the JLTV program and decided to pass because we are unable to meet the program’s timing requirements.”
The Army on Jan. 26 issued the long-awaited RFP for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the JLTV program, the same day the Defense Department released its budget priorities and choices, supporting the program (Defense Daily, Jan. 27).
Proposals are due March 13 and the Army intends to award as many as three contracts this summer for the EMD phase for the delivery of 22 prototype vehicles per contract.
JLTV is a major Army-Marine Corps acquisition program for a new generation wheeled vehicle that will replace a portion of the services’ High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) fleet. The program’s aim is to develop a new multi-mission light vehicle family with superior crew protection and performance compared to the HMMWV.
Three industry 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.
The teams are considering the RFP.