The U.K.’s Jankel has announced two key industry partners that will assist in its effort to help offer Oshkosh Defense
’s [OSK] Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) to the British Armed Forces.
Jankel said on Sept. 20 that British firm NP Aerospace and defense trade association Make UK Defence have joined its team to “establish a robust, UK-based, expert supply chain to deliver design, sub-system integration, manufacture, assembly and through life support services” for the JLTV.
“I’m delighted to announce these key partnerships today with NP Aerospace and Make U.K. Defence that are the first of a number of this type that we will be establishing to enable the delivery of the Oshkosh Defense JLTV to U.K. MoD. We have so much talent present in the U.K. defense industry and to begin to bring it all together like this is very exciting and will give the [Ministry of Defence] exactly what they need whilst remaining fully aligned with the Land Industrial Strategy,” Andrew Jankel, the company’s chairman, said in a statement.
Jankel, which describes itself as a “world-leader in the design, integration, manufacture, and support of high-specification defense systems,” first announced in late June it had entered into a teaming agreement with Oshkosh Defense to help offer the JLTV in the U.K. (Defense Daily, June 27).
“This partnership allows us to deliver an enduring multi-year program with an agile U.K. team,” Jankel said in a statement at the time of the original announcement. “Looking ahead, this partnership supports our long-term strategy to develop a U.K.-based center of excellence that integrates the best of British technology and innovation into world-leading vehicle platforms.”
The U.K. recently canceled its Multi-Role Vehicle-Protected (MRV-P) program, under which the JLTV was a potential option to be procured via the U.S. foreign military sales process.
Jankel has previously said the partnership with Oshkosh Defense presents an opportunity to offer a platform to meet the U.K’s new Land Industrial Strategy, while offering benefits from “leveraging local manufacture, design, integration, on-shore SME supply chain, and through life support capabilities.”
The U.S. Army is currently gearing up for the JLTV competitive follow-on production contract, releasing a Request for Proposals in February, with the deal worth potentially $7.3 billion over 10 years (Defense Daily, Feb. 9).
A contract award is slated for later this year and would include first vehicle delivery 18 months later.