Incumbent AM General, General Dynamics [GD], a Navistar [NAV]-Indigen Armor–SAIC [SAI] team, Oshkosh [OSK], and Northrop Grumman [NOC] partnered with BAE Systems and Pratt and Miller Engineering, all said last week they submitted proposals for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV 1.1) program.
The contract award is expected by January 2013 with production expected to begin in 2013 and end in mid-2020.
The special operations command wants a more advanced vehicle than the current SOF-specific GMV versions based on the Humvee. The command is interested in a more agile vehicle that offers more protection, armaments, and C4ISR and communications capability.
SOCOM’s GMV 1.1 program includes plans to acquire up to 1,300 vehicles for special operations missions with requirements for air transportability, weapons capabilities and high mobility.
AM General has been supplying SOCOM with the GMV 1.0 vehicles for about a decade and an official said the company is looking forward to supporting the customer in this competition.
General Dynamics submitted two separate GMV 1.1 proposals.
A General Dynamics Land Systems proposal was delivered to Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. A sample vehicle in support of the bid was delivered on May 30. The vehicle was designed and developed primarily at the General Dynamics Land Systems-Force Protection facility in Ladson, S.C.
This vehicle is designed for internal fixed- and rotary-wing transport with a center-mounted engine that provides optimal weight distribution on the ground and inside an aircraft, the company said in a statement. It is a mission-ready, high performance vehicle that can be driven off an aircraft ready for use. The vehicle’s modular technology is rapidly configurable for a variety of special operations missions and operating environments.
The company said it performed extensive testing over a two-year period to validate the vehicle’s design and performance.
A second proposal was delivered from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Vehicles, teamed with Flyer Defense LLC. The Flyer vehicle is lightweight, mobile, and air transportable. It is able to be rapidly reconfigured for a variety of missions. The Flyer has a payload capacity of up to 3,500 pounds.
The Navistar offering, first unveiled in late May, is built on Indigen Armor’s proven non-standard tactical truck and designed to be its modular and overt tactical equivalent. At the time, John Choate, president of Indigen Armor and former Navy SEAL said, “As former special operators, we have first-hand knowledge of how critical vehicle mobility and transportability are to SOCOM missions.” The vehicle is transportable in an armored and mission-ready state on a M/CH-47 helicopter, with C4ISR integration and life cycle support from SAIC.
The Northrop Grumman-BAE Systems-Pratt and Miller Engineering effort is known as the Medium Assault Vehicle-Light (MAV-L). “Our vehicle is known as the Medium Assault Vehicle–Light (MAV-L). “Our MAV-L combines Northrop Grumman’s innovation with the military vehicle production experience of BAE as well as Pratt and Miller’s high-performance racing expertise,” Bryce McDevitt, a Northrop Grumman spokesman, said. The MAV-L is an easily configurable, air transportable mission-ready solution that transports up to seven operators and is built specifically for the Special Forces.