JLTV RFP Is Out

The race to replace the iconic Humvee has entered its final stretch. Today, the Army gave competing contractors AM General, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin the final Request For Proposal for production of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. The competitors have until February 5 to ask the government questions and must submit their proposals by Feb. 10.

After that? “We continue to look forward to a Milestone C decision [to enter production] and the award of a firm-fixed-price contract to a single vendor near the end of Fiscal Year 2015 [i.e. before October 1st],” said Scott Davis, the Army’s Program Executive Officer (PEO) for support systems, in a statement.

At stake for industry: an eight-year award for 17,000 JLTVs — and a de facto lock on what’s expected to be a 50,000-vehicle program with a quarter-century of production and untold decades of sustainment afterwards. At stake for the Army and Marines: a new truck that combines the offroad mobility of the original, dangerously fragile unarmored Humvee with the life-saving protection of the lumbering MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) bought for Afghanistan and Iraq. With more ambitious programs like the Army Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) and the Marine Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) respectively in ruins or greatly scaled back, JLTV is the biggest ground vehicle modernization program going — assuming sequestration doesn’t kill it first.

link.