Joint light tactical vehicle award shakes up industry.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

* Oshkosh Defense emerged in late August as the winner of the highly coveted joint light tactical vehicle contract. Experts said the award would he a major boon for the Wisconsin-based manufacturer, but noted the future may not be as rosy for losing competitor AM General.

The JLTV will be one of the biggest military vehicle procurements for the foreseeable future. The Army and Marine Corps plan to purchase about 55,000 vehicles collectively to replace a portion of aging Humvees with new, more advanced platforms. The services will finish fielding the vehicles between fiscal years 2022 and 2040.

"Commanders often have to choose between payload, performance and protection ... the magic was in balancing those three things to come up with an optimal solution," said Scott Davis, Army program executive officer for combat support and combat service support during a briefing with reporters.

The initial contract is worth some $6.7 billion. Oshkosh expects to deliver approximately 17,000 vehicles and sustainment services over the course of the initial contract. Over the program's lifetime, the Army is planning to purchase more than 49,000 vehicles and the Marine Corps is slated for 5,500 units. It is estimated the entire program is worth $30 billion.

Lockheed Martin announced two weeks after the award that it had filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office. AM General said it was moving on to other opportunities.

Army Col. John Cavedo, former JLTV project manager, told reporters that the new vehicle will restore the so-called "iron triangle" of payload, protection and performance. "This is going to allow us to operate the way we had envisioned our light tactical vehicles being able to operate with greater flexibility and gaining back an expeditionary capability that we lost when we had to provide additional" armor, he said.

John Bryant, senior vice president of defense programs at Oshkosh Defense, said the award was extremely important for the company.

"The JLTV contract is one of the most valuable wins in the history of Oshkosh, particularly in Oshkosh Defense," he said. "What it really means to us is it offers stability over the long term."

Bryant said the company had been confident that its L-ATV offering would be the winner of the program.

"While we never counted our chickens before they were hatched, we were confident that there was no better vehicle out there," he told National Defense shortly after it was announced Oshkosh had won. "It's...