Lockheed Martin [LMT] and AM General yesterday each delivered 22 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles to the Army and Marine Corps under the JLTV program’s engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract.
The third competitor on the program, Oshkosh Corp. [OSK], Aug. 7 delivered the first of its 22 vehicles to the Army (Defense Daily, Aug. 8)
The vehicles will be transferred to the Army’s Yuma Test Center, Ariz., and to Aberdeen Test Center, Md., for 14 months of government evaluation and testing.
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| Lockheed Martin JLTV Prototype |
“Our team has produced a highly capable, reliable and affordable JLTV for our customers,” said Scott Greene, vice president of ground vehicles for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “These vehicles will meet the toughest demands of our soldiers and Marines. They deserve our best, and that’s precisely what we delivered.”
AM General Executive Vice President and COO John Ulrich said: “Achieving this key program milestone is a testament to AM General’s more than 50–year history of designing and manufacturing vehicles for the U.S Army and Marine Corps. Today’s successful delivery reinforces the company’s unmatched expertise in managing its supply chain to drive efficiencies in cost and enhanced reliability for our government customers. We have great confidence that (Blast Resistant Vehicle-Off road™ (BRV-O™)) is the solution to our warfighters’ future light tactical vehicle needs.”
After rolling up more than 160,000 combined test miles in the program’s Technology Development phase, the Lockheed Martin JLTV was selected for
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| BRV-O Photo: AM General |
continued development through a $65 million EMD contract from the Army and Marine Corps in August 2012. Lockheed Martin designed its JLTV specifically to meet stated customer requirements for the program, rather than trying to adapt an existing vehicle. The result is a lighter, more blast-resistant and more agile vehicle.
AM General’s BRV-O represents more than a decade of company investment in research, development and testing for this next-generation vehicle. It was less than one year ago that the government selected the company’s proposal for a $64.5 million JLTV EMD contract to build the 22 vehicles for government testing.
The BRV-O is designed on a common automotive platform that will be delivered as either a four-seat or a two-seat variant, the company said. These variants can be configured into four separate mission packages with a variety of equipment kits that will: connect warfighters with fully integrated command and control; protect them with kitted, scalable armoring; and enable them to successfully complete missions across the full spectrum of military operations.
The Lockheed Martin JLTV is designed to be a total solution–engineered from the ground up to balance the “iron triangle” of protection, performance and payload while maintaining affordability. The vehicle provides greatly improved crew protection and mobility, lower logistical support costs, superior fuel efficiency, exportable power-generation with substantial margin for future growth, and state-of-the-art connectivity with other platforms and systems. A Meritor Pro-TecTM air suspension system contributes to outstanding off-road performance while minimizing crew fatigue.
BAE Systems is responsible for the JLTV’s geometrically enhanced protection system, a design that enables levels of blast protection never before achieved in this vehicle class, and for vehicle final assembly, the company said.