WASHINGTON — If the US Army doesn't want the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle to fulfill its requirement for a nascent Lightweight Reconnaissance vehicle, what does it want?
Officials at General Dynamics believe the answer could be a variant of the Flyer 72, a 10,000-pound truck which is its offering for a US Special Operations Command program, the Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1.
The comments come after Army acquisition chief Katrina McFarland told Defense News that the Army is not longer married to plans to use the Oshkosh Defense-made JLTV to bridge a lethality shortfall for infantry brigade combat teams. Though the requirements are still being developed, JLTV lacks the seats for an entire reconnaissance squad and would need weapon mounts and other mission-related equipment— a possible opening for ultralight vehicle manufacturers.
"Our interpretation is the Army has realized there is a capability now that exists for the lightweight reconnaissance vehicle with a variant of our program with SOCOM," Sean Ridley, the program director at General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS). "Six soldiers, under armor with overmatch lethality is available now and ready to go."
At the Association of the US Army's annual meeting this week, GD-OTS leaned in with marketing materials touting a "Lightweight Reconnaissance Configuration" of the Flyer 72. It would have sensor and scalable armor packages.
GD-OTS in August demonstrated one of its Flyer 72 variants, with a 30 mm gun, at at Fort Benning, Georgia, for officials with the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence and the Army Capabilities Integration Center.
"We're very light, we're very mobile, we're under-slung capable, we're internally transportable, and that allows the Army to be much more mobile with a lightweight vehicle," Ridley said.
Three years ago, SOCOM selected the Flyer 72 for its GMV 1.1 program. It has since completed testing and is in low-rate initial production. Fifty of the first 91 trucks will be delivered by November, and next year, capacity is set to double to 170 trucks, Ridley said.
"From our perspective, it takes very little effort on our end to meet the [Army's provisional LRV] requirements, with a program of record that we've got," Ridley said. "It's an easy shoo-in from a hardware perspective when you already have those capabilities in hand and ready to go."
The LRV is a procurement associated with the Army's ground mobility vehicle program, a larger effort to quickly field an off-the-shelf vehicle that provides an infantry squad with enhanced tactical mobility. The idea is if troops cannot drop directly on target airfield, for instance, because its protected by anti-aircraft weapons, those troops would drop some distance away and speed to it in ultralight vehicles.
Not every off-the-shelf vehicle considered a contender for the GMV is a natural contender for the LRV.
Polaris Defense's offering for the GMV, the air-droppable, nine-person, 4,500-pound DAGOR, has been demonstrated to use a .50-caliber weapon, but a 30mm cannon would require significant changes, said Mark McCormick, director of US government sales for Polaris.
"From what we can bring to the party, we're more tied into the light capability," said Mark McCormick, director of US government sales for Polaris.
While a 30mm weapon is not a traditional requirement for a scout vehicle, McCormick said the Army appears to want to broaden what such a vehicle could do. "But I'm not sure that's a great fit for us, because this vehicle is designed to be very light," he said.
Otherwise, the US Marine Corps announced plans to provide its infantry regiments with a version of the Polaris Defense MRZR, a four-seat, all-terrain vehicle, McCormick confirmed. The vehicle would be transported inside a V-22 Osprey.
Under the Utility Task Vehicle program, the Marine Corps plans to buy 144 MRZR-D vehicles, which is able to run on both diesel and JP-8 fuel, McCormick said.
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
