BAE Systems, the UK’s leading defence company, has lost a multi-billion dollar bid to build the next generation of mine-resistant Humvee vehicles for the US military to an American rival.
The Pentagon last night announced that Wisconsin-based truck maker Oshkosh Corp had won an initial contract, valued at up to $6.7 billion billion, to build 17,000 of an eventual total of 55,000 new Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs, for the US Army and Marine Corps
BAE Systems was part of a consortium lead by Lockheed Martin, which was on shortlist of three to build the new vehicle, along with OshKosh and AM General, the privately held company that built the original Humvees.
Winning the contract would have been a major coup for the Lockheed/BAE Systems consortium, but it was regarded as an outlier in the competition.
Oshkosh and AM General both have existing ground vehicle production lines, while Lockheed had to transplant BAE System’s entire wheeled vehicle production line from Sealy in Texas to Camden, Arkansas, in order to produce the 22 prototypes needed for the competition that were then subject to 14 months of testing.
Advertisement
The Pentagon said that production of the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) will begin at the start of 2016.
The next generation JLTV will replace the United States Army’s existing fleet of 160,000 Humvees.
The Humvee, is the backbone of the Army’s transport fleet and it has spawned a civilian model, the Hummer, which is made by General Motors. It entered service in 1985 and became famous during the two Gulf wars as the vehicle that carried troops into combat.