MONTEREY, Calif. — The Army is set to drop a market survey within weeks to gauge industry interest in competing for follow-on work for its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program beyond 2023, with officials also looking to industry to deliver capabilities now to provide intermittent upgrades for the vehicles.

Col. Shane Fullmer, project manager for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, told attendees Tuesday here at an NDIA conference the Army intends to hold a full, open competition for the eventual contract to continue supplying JLTVs following the completion of Oshkosh’s [OSK] current contract.

Oshkosh JLTV at the Bushmaster Users Conference in Arizona in Jan. sporting a remote weapon station and 30 mm cannon. (Oshkosh photo)

“We’re approaching the time where it’s time to start discussing our follow-on production contract,” Fullmer said. “We intend to use a full and open competition. We own the technical data package there.”

The market survey is likely to drop within 30 to 45 days, according to Fullmer, and will ask industry for input on the best way to facilitate competition for the program.

Oshkosh was awarded a  $6.7 billion JLTV production contract in 2015 for  17,000 vehicles. The Army has indicated it is eventually seeking a 49,000 vehicle fleet.

The company is contract for orders through 2023, with delivery of those vehicles extending into 2024 and 2025. A full-rate production decision for the current contract is expected this spring.

The Army began fielding the first JLTVs in January to a unit in Ft. Stewart in Georgia.

“We’ll be interested to see what the market survey says,” George Mansfield, Oshkosh’s vice president and general manager of joint programs, told Defense Daily.

Fullmer said the Army is also looking for industry to provide capabilities for JLTV that will help the program “maintain performance decrease costs,” and interested vendors to discuss opportunities with his team and Oshkosh.

“There are opportunities in that fleet. One of my goals is to maintain performance while decreasing cost, so if you have a component part that you think is going to allow us to maintain or increase our current level of performance please let me and my staff know,” Fullmer said.

The Army has specifically highlighted logistical and power components for System Technical Support directives to achieve performance objectives beyond the program’s original requirements.

“We’re always trying to get after logistics costs and decreasing operational costs, improving power and capability of the vehicle. And there’s always operational and field desires that we’re trying to incorporate into the vehicle.”