Market for Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Booming Overseas

JUST IN: Market for Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Booming Overseas

AM General photo

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Foreign military sales of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle are taking off, and potential overseas customers are already inquiring about its next version, military truck officials said Feb. 28.

The Army-led Joint Program Office for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles is “knee deep” in foreign military sales, Munira Tourner, product manager for systems integration at the JPO said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Tactical Wheeled Vehicles conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In fiscal year 2023, the office helped facilitate sales of 172 JLTVs to six different countries, and that number is expected to jump to 1,200 vehicles to nine foreign militaries in 2024, she said.

The JLTVs sold so far are the first iteration of the workhorse Humvee replacement vehicle, which are manufactured by Oshkosh Defense. The joint office recompeted the contract and AM General — the Humvee’s maker — beat out Oshkosh in 2023 to build an upgraded version known as the A2.

“And in terms of FMS sales, we’re already seeing letters of requests coming for A2s already. So just be ready for that because I’ve seen a huge growth in that area,” Tourner said during a panel discussion at the conference.

The State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which coordinates foreign military sales, lists seven nations so far as JLTV customers, including: the United Kingdom, Israel, Romania, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Montenegro.

Meanwhile, the JPO, Oshkosh and AM General are currently in the throes of transitioning from one manufacturer to another, a process that has suffered some “headwinds,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christopher Stephenson, the JPO’s product manager for vehicle systems.

The two services purchased the JLTV’s technical data rights from Oshkosh to recompete the program every six years. The goal is to get the best possible deal for the services and by extension, the taxpayers. AM General won the recompete in February 2023 with a contract valued at $8.6 billion for up to 20,682 JLTVs and 9,883 trailers. The company is now in a two-year transition period to prepare for production.

“As far as the actual day-to-day challenges of this two-year transition, I think each manufacturer is having unique headwinds that I think [are] appropriate for the phases,” Stephenson said, declining to spell out the speed bumps the two manufacturers are hitting.

But he said there are no show stoppers or any problems that can’t be solved by the time Oshkosh must end its JLTV production in September 2025.

“The good news is we have forcing functions to keep the momentum going,” he said.

The A2 version will have some improvements over the first iteration including: an LP5 Duramax engine to provide better fuel economy without losing performance; a simplified electric architecture; noise reduction inside and outside the vehicle; and improved corrosion protection, Tourner said.

The procurement objective over the 30-year projected lifetime of the program remains at 49,099 JLTV trucks and 18,224 trailers, a slide during a presentation stated.

Topics: Global Defense Market, International