Three members of the House have written Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter proposing an accelerated acquisition for a new armored vehicle program.
Reps. Mark Critz (D-Pa.), Todd Platts (R-Pa.) and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), all members of the House Armed Services Committee, told Carter in their April 25 letter that they are concerned about the potential break in combat vehicle production plan, and suggest a way to “partially mitigate this unacceptable situation.”
Members wrote, “We strongly believe that an accelerated acquisition such as was used to acquire the very successful ‘Interim Armored Vehicle’ is ideally suited for the AMPV program.”
That Interim Armored Vehicle became the Stryker vehicle, in service since 2002 and produced to this day by General Dynamics [GD].
“The AMPV program is virtually an off-the-shelf program for which our existing combat vehicle manufacturers have had working prototypes for as long as three years,” the letter said.
In 2007 the Army terminated the M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) program. The service has about 6,000 of the Vietnam-era vehicles, but they are neither mobile nor survivable enough for today’s battlefield, members wrote.
Last year, the Army proposed the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle Program (AMPV) but didn’t plan to begin low-rate initial production until 2016.
However, members wrote, the FY ’13 budget proposes another delay, delaying procurement until 2017.
Suggestions for the proposed acceleration was also part of the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, but due to time constraints and other matters the issue was not addressed in the FY ’13 budget.