Sequestration threatens joint light tactical vehicle acquisition.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

With round two of sequestration looming over the Pentagon, major weapon programs could be on the chopping block. The joint light tactical vehicle program--which if fulfilled would see more than 50,000 vehicles manufactured--could be a casualty, some experts said.

The fierce competition pits Lockheed Martin, Oshkosh Defense and AM General against each other to build the Army and Marine Corps' next light tactical vehicle. The Army has said it intends to purchase more than 49,000 vehicles and the Marine Corps is slated for 5,500 units.

Interviews with JLTV program office leadership were not made available to National Defense, but a joint program office spokesman pointed to October remarks from Army Col. John R. Cavedo Jr., program manager for the JPO, in which he describes sequestration's potential effects.

"The impact will more than likely ... be a slowdown of production, which equals a stretch out of production," Cavedo said at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting-exposition in Washington, D.C. "If you buy less, the cost will move up."

He noted that the program was able to survive earlier budget cuts through efficiency.

"We were able to work through both furlough and government shut down, the impacts of sequestration ... by being incredibly efficient," he said. "The folks on my team worked day in and day out ... [looking at] every cell on the Excel spreadsheet, looking for every little block they could shave a little bit of money from."

Ryan Crotty, a fellow and deputy director for defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said the JLTV is one of the Defense Department's safest programs. However, acquiring combat vehicles is currently a lower priority.

"In some ways the JLTV is kind of at the head of the class for land vehicle acquisition, but that class itself is pretty low on the totem pole right now," he noted.

The program also faces competition from other Army vehicle procurement efforts, said Brad Curran, an aerospace and defense senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

"Total spending for new-build combat vehicles should remain stable, but the Army will probably have to prioritize programs," he said. "I think the armored multi-purpose vehicle will win out as the higher priority for a new build as the Army downsizes in a tight budget environment."

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