Sublime Bloviations: Navistar and BAE team up to get in the JLTV game (Updated x2)

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Navistar and BAE team up to get in the JLTV game (Updated x2)

Force Protection has its Cheetah. PVI has its Protector. Lockheed Martin has this (see image at the bottom).

Each vehicle (see update below) is a JLTV, the class of vehicles the Pentagon hopes to use as a replacement for the Humvee. The Pentagon wants something lighter, smaller, and faster than the current crop of MRAPs (with the possible exception of the Cheetah, which may qualify in both classes).

Now Navistar, which won big in the MRAP sweepstakes with its MaxxPro vehicle, has agreed to work with powerful BAE to produce an entry in the JLTV competition.
Navistar International Corp. said Tuesday afternoon that the Warrenville truck and engine maker has teamed up with BAE Systems PLC to produce a platform for the Pentagon's planned Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program.

The Navistar/BAE venture "will also be investigating other global opportunities" with militaries around the world, Navistar said.
(Chicago Tribune)

The Pentagon delayed the JLTV program to focus on getting MRAP vehicles to areas where they're needed.

Though Force Protection seems to have an advantage with a viable design at the early stage, the Navistar/BAE partnership should produce a formidable entry.

Update:
Jeffrey Colburn made the comment that the internal link to the Lockheed Martin design is not a JLTV but the FTTS (Future Tactical Truck System).

Unfortunately, Colburn's URLs didn't seem to work so it was hard to verify his claim.

In early February, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $9 million contract to build a technology demonstration vehicle for the second phase of the U.S. Army’s Future Tactical Truck Systems (FTTS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The FTTS ACTD will help refine the requirements for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
(LockheedMartin.com)

If that doesn't make the FTTS a prototype of sorts for the JLTV then the hairs are split a bit too fine for novices such as me.

Update 2:
Jeffrey Colburn was correct to draw a hard distinction between the FTTS and the JLTV by Lockheed Martin. While the FTTS may have been used to road-test some of the features of the later vehicle, the physical designs bear little resemblance to one another.

If the image doesn't appear, just hit the hotlink at the top to get to the source page.