Oshkosh garners the big M-ATV contract

Oshkosh Truck, collaborating with Plasan, won the coveted Defense Department M-ATV competition.

The Pentagon on Monday announced the award of a contract for 2,244 M-ATV vehicles, with the contract valued at about $1.1 billion.

Oshkosh fared poorly in earlier in the earlier MRAP competitions, starting with the "Alpha" vehicle produced in cooperation with Protected Vehicles, Inc. That vehicle fared poorly during testing and an initial order for 100 of those vehicles was eventually canceled.

In this competition the company seems to have produced a quality product, and certainly delivered an effective public relations campaign at the same time.

Oshkosh wasted no time in issuing a press release:

“We are proud that Oshkosh was chosen to provide its M-ATV offer to the the U.S. Armed Forces. Our M-ATV design combines the crew protection warfighters have come to expect in MRAP vehicles with the extreme mobility and durability needed to negotiate Afghanistan’s mountainous off-road terrain,” said Robert G. Bohn, Oshkosh Corporation chairman and chief executive officer.

I've posted a number of pics of the M-ATV version of the Sandcat, but here's one more:

clipped from www.oshkoshdefense.com