As the Army and Marine Corps work through limited user tests for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle competitors, the Lockheed Martin [LMT] and BAE Systems team hopes the troops using their vehicle will recognize the long-term value built in, program officials said Tuesday at the Modern Day Marine military expo.
“First and foremost, I believe we have superior survivability,” Scott Greene, vice president of ground vehicles for Lockheed Martin, told reporters. “Second, I’d tell you our mobility is also excellent. From a quality of ride standpoint, it’s very very good. Total ownership: we designed this vehicle with ownership costs in mind.”
Photo: Lockheed Martin
The team found during the technology development phase that it could meet performance requirements with a smaller engine than anticipated, so the vehicle features a 4 cylinder engine that gets about 14 miles per gallon, he said. Over the lifetime of the program, the savings will be significant, given the cost to transport fuel into theater and then to send resupply convoys out for soldiers and Marines in the fight.
The vehicle also features an inline power generation system instead of an alternator, which can be scaled up in the future if the users need to generate more offboard power.
The team passed its production readiness review in August, and the vehicles should be in the limited user test for the next six or seven weeks, Greene said. Soldiers will conduct mock missions during the first half of the test and then hand the vehicles over to Marines for the second half. The government’s program office will write up final test reports soon afterward and then a final review before the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contracts expire in mid-November. Greene said he expects a request for proposals for the low-rate initial production contract by the end of the year.