HUNTSVILLE, Ala.–The Army’s top officer sees its future ground vehicles filling a requirement he called mobile protected firepower: one light vehicle that can deploy quickly and give initial ground capability and another heavier vehicle that can follow those lighter vehicles into combat.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said April 1 while the service’s Stryker combat vehicle has performed “greatly,” the Army has to increase its lethality. He said the service needs a light capability that enables light forces to move around very quickly, enabling mobility, while also needing to develop infantry fighting vehicles and future tank-like vehicles that are capable, but also have some sort of autonomous capability.
Photo: Polaris Industries.
“Depending on light, medium or heavy, we want to be mobile, we want to create survivability either by passive, or other means, and we have to increase the lethality of those systems,” Odierno told reporters here at the Association of United States Army (AUSA) Global Force Symposium and Exposition.
The Army is about to embark on two major vehicle competitions: the Ultralight Combat Vehicle (ULCV) and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). General Dynamics [GD] and Flyer Defense are teaming to offer a Flyer 72 variant for the ULCV competition.
A potential competitor for ULCV includes Polaris Industries [PII], which U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) recently informed it intended to negotiate a contract for 1,750 of its four-seat MRZR (MRZR-4) and 300 two-seat MRZRs (MRZR-2) as part of SOCOM’s Light All-Terrain Vehicle (LTATV) program. While not indicative of final contract pricing, the General Services Administration (GSA) lists the MRZR-4 at a unit price of $34,926 and MRZR-2 at $32,931 (Defense Daily, March 25).
The ULCV competition was slated to begin by the end of March. The Army did not return a request for comment by press time Monday (Defense Daily, Feb. 19). General Dynamics spokeswoman Laurie VanBrocklin said Monday the company was not aware of a request for proposals (RFP) being released for ULCV. She said a request for information (RFI) for the program was released in 2014.
The Army’s high profile JLTV program is intended to replace the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (Humvee), the current light tactical vehicle. Bidders include a Lockheed Martin [LMT]-BAE Systems team, AM General and Oshkosh Defense [OSK]. The service requested $457 million in fiscal year 2016 for JLTV, enough to procure a total low-rate initial production (LRIP) buy of 559 vehicles: 450 for the Army and 109 for the Marine Corps. A contract is expected by July (Defense Daily, Feb. 3).