Oshkosh [OSK] Defense announced Friday it has received a $237.7 million order from the Army to recapitalize 407 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT) and 25 Palletized Load System (PLS) trucks and deliver 601 new PLS trailers.
The recapitalization deals arrive as the Army looks to continue outfitting its tactical wheeled vehicles with upgraded capabilities to ensure the fleet is able to handle the new, potentially heavier systems to be procured in the near future, including long-range precision fires.
Recapitalization for the trucks includes stripping the current vehicles to the frame rails, rebuilding the platforms to the latest configuration and returning them to the Army in a “zero-mile, zero-hour” condition, according to Oshkosh.
The contract for 407 recapitalized vehicles will be split between 382 HEMTTs and 25 PLS trucks.
Since the HEMTT was fielded in 1981 and the PLS in 1990, Oshkosh has recapitalized over 12,500 and 3,000 respectively since 1995. .
“Oshkosh recapitalization services offer significant cost savings to the U.S. Army by returning vehicles to current operational readiness with the same performance, safety and life cycle costs advantages of a new vehicle. Recapitalized vehicles are put through the same extensive road tests, performance tests, and inspection procedures as new vehicles and then returned to field operations with the latest upgrades and a new bumper-to-bumper warranty,” Pat Williams, Oshkosh’s vice president of U.S. Army and Marine Corps programs, told Defense Daily.
Officials at an NDIA Tactical Wheeled Vehicle conference earlier this week said HEMTT and PLS recapitalization decisions would form a critical part of the the future vehicle fleet strategy and aligning priorities with the new modernization-focused Futures Command (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).
Col. Charlie Fisher, chief of the Army G-8’s transportation branch, said the Army has specifically linked the long-range precision and fires effort with future HEMTT and PLS modernization decisions.
A future path forward for HEMTT and PLS recapitalization is expected from the Army in fiscal year 2022, officials said at the NDIA conference.
“We are proud that the U.S. Army has trusted Oshkosh to provide this cost-effective recapitalization service for over 2 decades,” Williams said in a statement. “As the original equipment manufacturer, we know these vehicles inside and out, and we are in the best position to quickly return them to field operations in like-new condition.”