A top Oshkosh [OSK] official says the company is reaching into international opportunities as it prepares and awaits whatever happens on the budget front.
“We’re not panicking, we do understand,” said John Urias, Oshkosh Corp. executive vice president and president of Oshkosh Defense. “We’ve been through this before, it’s nothing Earth-shattering and new, it’s something inevitable and historic. “ Every time we come out of a conflict, we downsize.”
There are some domestic contracts to come, such as reset and recapitalization, though others are winding down. For example, the M-ATV for U.S. forces was a “huge boon” for the company, but it came from a unique set of circumstances not the norm, he said. That year, 2009 was a great year followed by other good years but the M-ATV contract was completed last year.
Now, Oshkosh Defense is combining an aggressive and robust business development opportunity coupled with an equally aggressive and international business unit.
The company hasn’t done anything different except have a more focused view of the playing field, with a full court press to prepare for success, he said.
“One thing I’ve done personally was to revamp the business development organization and started expanding the international unit,” Urias said. “You’ve got to have the bodies, the people to get out there and find the opportunities. There’s nothing magic about it.”
Other companies have more robust business development organizations and Urias considered them as he worked out his approach.
Right now, the division doesn’t have specific offices outside the country. “I think we’re waiting and seeing how things play out,” he said.
Basically, he said, whatever happens with sequestration and budget concerns will impact the defense industry, and Oshkosh Defense will be one of the recipients of whatever happens.
“We know that there’s a number of extra dynamics–like a continuing resolution or the election and then the potential of sequestration, national debt. There’s a little more hype on this one, because of the unknowns, he said.
While all that churning in the background, “we are executing our current contracts as well as working with the current contracts we support to do as best we possibly can to provide world class products and services,” he said. “And, we’re aggressively looking for new business–the glass is still half full.”
At the Association of the United States Army annual conference, Urias said he’d be interested in finding out more about the Army’s plans, for the Humvee, for example, and having discussions with the customer base and other industry members. It appears the Army is revisiting Humvee modernization at some scale of effort as it will take some time before the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle gets to production from the current engineering and manufacturing development phase, which doesn’t complete until 2015.
“We’re interested in exploring opportunities,” Urias said. Oshkosh Defense was prepared to compete for the Modernized Expanded Capacity Vehicle (MECV) which the Army dropped. “We think we have some great ideas.”
Meanwhile, Oshkosh continues to execute its contracts and seek business opportunities.
“We’ve been through this before, upturns and down. This cycle will end, we’ll still have an Oshkosh, it will still be a number one rated company that will always be focused on warfighters. We’re going to weather the storm, and take whatever actions we need to take, continue to produce world class heavy, medium and light vehicles for DoD and take great pride in what we do,” Urias said.