AUSA: A recently retired general officer summed up the mood among many Army officers and defense industry officials here yesterday: “This is the worst, most depressing situation I’ve seen in 34 years of service.” The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program is just one indicator in that depressing scenario facing the Army. The service still plans… Keep reading →

AM General’s corporate ancestors built jeeps in World War II. The company designed and still builds the military’s iconic Humvee. But in the battle to build the Humvee’s replacement, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, AM General is ironically not the incumbent but the scrappy underdog. [Follow these links to read more and see video about… Keep reading →

[UPDATED 12:45 pm] Truck maker Navistar is withdrawing the protest it filed Friday with the Government Accountability Office over the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program, company spokeswoman Elissa Koc told Breaking Defense this morning. Had Navistar persisted, its protest probably would have delayed JLTV development for months while the GAO investigated whether the military ran… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Navistar has withdrawn its protest — click here for the latest. Buy 54,599 armored trucks at $250,000 each and that works out to roughly $13.6 billion. That’s the military’s current plan to build Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs), which will replace most of the Army and Marine Corps’ vulnerable Humvees and unmaneuverable MRAPs (The… Keep reading →

Three very different teams are contending to build the Humvee’s replacement, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Breaking Defense weighs their strengths and weaknesses. Last week, the Army and Marines slashed a crowded field of competitors in half, awarding contracts for “engineering and manufacturing development” of JLTV prototypes to aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, truck maker Oshkosh,… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos laid out today the Corps’ tricky balancing act, simultaneously cutting personnel, spreading out weapons programs, and shifting from counterinsurgency on land in Afghanistan to seaborne crisis response in the Pacific. The big Marine Corps news of the last 24 hours was the award of development contracts to three firms,… Keep reading →

[updated 4:00 pm with AM General comment] The Army and Marines took a big step towards replacing their vulnerable Humvees and lumbering MRAPs yesterday evening when they awarded contracts to defense giant Lockheed Martin, truck maker Oshkosh, and Humvee manufacturer AM General to develop alternatives for a new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). The military… Keep reading →