U.S. Army drives ahead with Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program

WARREN, Mich. — Today, a Request for Pro­pos­al was issued by the U.S. Army for the Engi­neer­ing and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Devel­op­ment phase of the Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle pro­gram.

An Army and U.S. Marine Corps’ Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle team con­ducts a heli­copter sling load trans­porta­bil­i­ty test dur­ing the Tech­nol­o­gy Devel­op­ment phase. Click to enlarge

One of the Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle Tech­nol­o­gy Devel­op­ment Phase pro­to­types is pic­tured here dur­ing a demon­stra­tion at Aberdeen Prov­ing Ground, Md. Click to enlarge

An Army and U.S. Marine Corps’ Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle team con­ducts a heli­copter sling load trans­porta­bil­i­ty test dur­ing the Tech­nol­o­gy Devel­op­ment phase. Click to enlarge

The Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle, or JLTV, fam­i­ly will bal­ance crit­i­cal weight and trans­porta­bil­i­ty con­straints with­in per­for­mance, pro­tec­tion, and pay­load require­ments — all while ensur­ing an afford­able solu­tion for the Army and U.S. Marine Corps. 

“Both the Army and the U.S. Marine Corps have iden­ti­fied crit­i­cal capa­bil­i­ty gaps in their respec­tive light tac­ti­cal vehi­cle fleets. JLTV is the most cost-effec­tive pro­gram to meet capa­bil­i­ty gaps for the light tac­ti­cal vehi­cles with the most demand­ing mis­sions,” said Kevin M. Fahey, Pro­gram Exec­u­tive Offi­cer for Com­bat Sup­port and Com­bat Ser­vice Sup­port, known as PEO CS&CSS.

JLTV is a major Army-Marine Corps acqui­si­tion pro­gram for a new gen­er­a­tion wheeled vehi­cle that will replace a por­tion of the ser­vices’ Humvee fleet. The program’s aim is to devel­op a new mul­ti-mis­sion light vehi­cle fam­i­ly with supe­ri­or crew pro­tec­tion and per­for­mance com­pared to the Humvees. 

“The Tech­nol­o­gy Devel­op­ment phase for this pro­gram did exact­ly what it was intend­ed to do — pro­vide the basis for the cost-informed trades that result­ed in a com­mon Army and Marine Corps require­ment. It serves as a mod­el for how the ser­vices look­ing for­ward should oper­ate in a cost-con­strained bud­get envi­ron­ment,” said William E. Tay­lor, Pro­gram Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Land Sys­tems Marine Corps. 

In the spring of 2011, JLTV suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a 27-month Tech­nol­o­gy Devel­op­ment, or TD, phase — sat­is­fy­ing its intend­ed pur­pose of demon­strat­ing the inte­gra­tion of mature tech­nolo­gies as a com­plete sys­tem and pro­vid­ing the Army and the Marine Corps with an assess­ment of the tech­ni­cal, per­for­mance cost and sched­ule risks rel­e­vant to enter­ing the Engi­neer­ing and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Devel­op­ment, or EMD, Phase. 

“The TD phase gave the Army and USMC exact­ly the kind of infor­ma­tion we need­ed con­cur on a com­mon base require­ment, a stream­lined acqui­si­tion sched­ule and a com­pet­i­tive process to ensure JLTV remains afford­able,” said Col. David Bas­sett, project man­ag­er for Tac­ti­cal Vehicles. 

Fol­low­ing sub­mis­sion of pro­pos­als, the Gov­ern­ment will con­vene a source selec­tion eval­u­a­tion board, com­prised of sub­ject mat­ter experts from across the Depart­ment of Defense, to review the indus­try pro­pos­als. The Army intends to award up to three con­tracts dur­ing the sum­mer for the EMD phase for the deliv­ery of 22 pro­to­type vehi­cles per con­tract. Addi­tion­al deliv­er­ables include bal­lis­tic struc­tures, armor coupons, addi­tion­al test assets, con­trac­tor fur­nished kits, trail­ers and data requirements. 

The refined 27-month acqui­si­tion strat­e­gy is designed to put a pre­mi­um on dri­ving down costs, reduc­ing risk and get­ting vehi­cles into the hands of warfight­ers quick­ly. The JLTV EMD con­tract peri­od of per­for­mance for con­trac­tors is 27-months, while the full EMD phase will last for 33-months as the pro­gram offices ensures JLTV moves suc­cess­ful­ly from Mile­stone B to Mile­stone C. 

Source:
U.S. Army 

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