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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – AM General says the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) A2 program remains on track for initial fielding this year, with a senior executive adding the production line is “healthy” amid the Army’s plan to buy fewer vehicles.
John Chadbourne, executive vice president and chief operating officer told Defense Daily he could not disclose specific vehicle quantities on contract while confirming the company has a “production backlog for years now” between Army, Marine Corps and international customer orders.
“There is still a good demand signal across the board for the JLTV A2,” Chadbourne said in an interview at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium here. “Overall, I think the program is healthy.”
As part of the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) rollout last year, the service detailed plans to move on from buying more “obsolete” capabilities such as the JLTV and Humvee along with the AH-64D Apache, the M10 Booker and Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system.
The Army’s planned JLTV cut was a major pivot after it awarded Humvee manufacturer AM General a potential 10-year, multi-billion dollar deal just over two years ago to build the new JLTV A2 and take over as prime contractor from Oshkosh Defense [OSK].
Congressional appropriators, however, rebuked the Army’s planned JLTV cut in the final FY ‘26 defense spending bill, and included $345 million for continued Army procurement, a nearly $300 million increase from the service’s request, as well as fully funding the Marine Corps’ $81.9 million and Air Force’s $62.2 million requests (Defense Daily, Jan. 22).
Col. Eric Anderson, the Army G-8’s division chief for capability development sustainment, said in February the plan remains “buying less” JLTVs, while affirming the service doesn’t envision divesting of the platforms currently in its fleet (Defense Daily, Feb. 24).
Chadbourne said the Army has “a lot” of JLTV A2s on contract with AM General and “they’re still wanting those,” adding the program is currently on track with testing.
AM General told Defense Daily last October the Army’s initial fielding of the JLTV A2 would likely occur in the second half of 2026 (Defense Daily, Oct. 27 2025).
“In order to start fielding to the Army, you have to complete testing [and] get your conditional material release. So that whole process takes a little bit of time, and then we would be beginning that fielding. That should all happen inside the calendar year,” Shatiel Edwards, AM General’s vice president of future programs, told Defense Daily.
The Army is currently working on an updated tactical wheeled vehicle strategy it’s expected to complete in the coming months, which Chadbourne said will likely offer a more in-depth view into future JLTV plans (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).
“We don’t know what the end state of that’s going to be,” he said.
The Marine Corps has reaffirmed plans to replace its entire Humvee fleet with JLTVs, with a lead official noting the service has fielded “half” of its JLTV requirement and will continue to procure vehicles to fulfill its remaining acquisition objective (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).
In the wake of the Army’s ATI cuts announcement, Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine Corps commandant, said the average per unit cost for the JLTVs “will go up” and the Marines may have to “buy less” without a budget increase (Defense Daily, June 24 2025).
Edwards said that range pricing established as part of the Army’s JLTV contracting process could potentially help mitigate concerns regarding unit cost adjustments.
“That’s a lever that they can pull in coordinating those efforts and procurements. [Bundling] those buys will drive you into different ranges. So they know very well what those ranges are and they can buy inside any of those,” Edwards said.
