Looking closer at Marine MRAP cutback

A tiny bit more information regarding the Marines' cutback on MRAP orders:

Conway said cutting the Marines' MRAP order may speed up purchase of the vehicles for the Army.

The Marines still have a use for the smallest variant of the vehicle as an engineer combat vehicle, even in an expeditionary environment, Conway said. The service has tried for 20 years to develop an engineer combat vehicle, he noted. The MRAP could fill that bill with 360-degree protection and its V-shaped hull, which directs shrapnel away from riders.

(Military.com)

The first paragraph: Speed up purchase of the vehicles for the Army? The Army is likely to get MRAPs in the field more quickly, but ordering more of them seems like an open question subject to considerable doubt.

The second paragraph: The Marines may have a use for the "smallest variant" of the vehicle. That could mean the Cat I generally or it could mean the Armor Holdings (BAE Systems) Caiman particularly. The Cat I Caiman, from what I can tell, is the smallest of the MRAPs that have been delivered. Force Protection's Cheetah (or PVI's Protector) might also qualify for Marine service, as both are purported to have MRAP-type protections built into a smaller and faster vehicle.

That's as good an excuse as any to finally post a Cheetah pic.

clipped from www.army-technology.com

Go here and you can see a short promotional video at the Force Protection Web site.

Speaking of the Force Protection Web site, the images there reflect some subtle exterior changes to the Cheetah. Note the broader grille opening, and some changes to both the front and rear fenders. Not to mention the considerably different bumper.

clipped from www.forceprotection.net

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JLTVs, CTVs at the 2007 Modern Day Marine expo

The USMC is expected to publish the JLTV request for proposal (RFP) at the beginning of the coming year, and select manufacturers for the new family of vehicles by the end of March 2008. Initial operational capability originally scheduled for 2010 was recently pushed back to 2012, as the services are focused on the acquisition of heavier and more urgently needed MRAP in the near term. However, all officials are stating that JLTV and MRAP are two different vehicles, providing for different missions. While MRAP is addressing more urgent gaps in force protection, JLTV is fulfilling current and future requirements for all-terrain tactical mobility, maneuverability, sustainability as well as air transportation and strategic mobility (including sealift).
(Defense Update)

There's plenty more to read as well as a number of photos of thus-far poorly publicized military vehicles.

Another page dealing with the same event (Modern Day Marine) featured brief reviews of PVIs "Protector" and Force Protection's "Cheetah." Functional testing should rightly determine which vehicle is better--one trade-off from the listed specs caught my eye: The Cheetah has a longer cruising range (by 200 miles) while the Protector is listed as slightly faster (70 mph versus 65 mph).

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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.

clipped from www.tribune-democrat.com

Lockheed Martin JLTV prototype

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