Tactical wheeled vehicle programs at critical juncture.

• Author: Harper, Jon

* The U.S. military is trying to modernize its ground vehicle fleet after more than a decade of war by buying new trucks and upgrading or divesting older models. Procurement priorities include the joint light tactical vehicle and the ground mobility vehicle, while the Humvee and the mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles are getting a facelift.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised about the state of the fleet. The National Commission on the Future of the Army, an independent panel created by Congress to examine the service's plans and needs, released its final report in January.

"The plan for readiness in tactical mobility is one area that is alarming," the report said. "Commissioners received numerous reports from soldiers and commanders about tactical wheeled vehicle shortages."

The commission called on the Army to provide Congress with an assessment of risks in current and planned tactical mobility, including the costs and potential tradeoffs for closing significant readiness gaps.

The service will comply with that request, Lt. Gen. John Murray, deputy chief of staff G-8, told lawmakers.

"Our numbers don't necessarily agree with the commission's report," he said. "For both the light, the medium and the heavy we're showing excess wheeled vehicles.... We've got some work to do to figure out where the disconnect is, and we're looking at that right now."

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Production work on the joint light tactical vehicle was paused for three months last fall after competitor Lockheed Martin protested the Army and Marine Corps' decision to award the lucrative contract to Oshkosh. In December, the Government Accountability Office lifted the work stoppage order and Lockheed decided to take its protest to the Court of Federal Claims.

Lockheed backed down after the court denied the company's request for a preliminary injunction in February. In a short press release on Feb. 17, Lockheed said: "After careful deliberation, Lockheed Martin has withdrawn its protest of the JLTV contract award decision in the Court of Federal Claims."

When asked why the decision was made, Lockheed spokesman John Kent said in an email: "We're not currently in a position to discuss this issue beyond the information contained in our statement."

In a press release following Lockheed's announcement, Oshkosh noted that it is now "clear of the legal challenge."

The joint light tactical vehicle is the Army's top truck procurement program. In fiscal year 2016, the Defense Department is buying about 800 of them for the Army and Marines, and the Pentagon expects to procure more than 2,000 JLTVs in fiscal year 2017. Over the next five years, the services plan to buy more than 17,000 at an expected cost of $6.9 billion.

The delivery schedule for the next tranche of vehicles has slipped due to Lockheed's protest and the government-ordered work stoppage.

"We'll be beginning to deliver vehicles at the end of the summer instead of in the middle of the summer," said John Bryant, senior vice president of defense programs at Oshkosh Defense.

The program is in a position to recover from the delay, he said.

"The overall schedule of the JLTV...