WASHINGTON — AM General, the new producer of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, has chosen Navistar Defense to make trailers for the program, according to the subcontractor.
The deal will see Navistar Defense manufacture about 10,000 JLTV trailers, the Michigan-based company said in an Aug. 17 statement.
AM General unseated JLTV-maker Oshkosh Defense in the U.S. Army’s competition to build more of the vehicles, winning a contract valued at $8.66 billion in February. Oshkosh protested the decision with the Government Accountability Office, but the watchdog rejected that protest in June, allowing AM General to set up production lines and make arrangements with subcontractors.
“The JLTV trailer subcontract allows us to continue diversifying our business portfolio, support our growth in Mississippi, and expand our growing business,” Ted Wright, Navistar Defense’s CEO, said in the statement.
The trailer is “a multipurpose platform configured to support general purpose cargo and tactical generator mobility missions,” Navistar said. It is built “to operate with the Closed Combat Weapons Carrier, the General Purpose, Heavy Guns Carrier and Utility JLTV variants,” the statement added.
Navistar will begin producing the trailers in 2024 at its assembly plant in West Point, Mississippi. The contract has a five-year period of performance with an option to extend for an additional five years.
JLTVs will be built in a military production facility at AM General’s 96-acre Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus in Indiana. Deliveries are expected to begin 17 months after contract award, according to the company.
AM General has begun to build out its team to produce the JLTV, choosing Plasan North America to provide major components of the armored cab in a $300 million deal in July. The company is the American branch of Israeli firm Plasan. The U.S. location was already supplying smaller subcomponents for the cab to Oshkosh when the latter was under contract to build the first JLTVs.
Plasan will build components at its manufacturing facility in Walker, Michigan.
Navistar Defense is one of the four companies selected to build prototypes for the U.S. Army’s Common Tactical Truck competition, along with Mack Defense, Oshkosh Defense, and a team made up of American Rheinmetall Vehicles and GM Defense, in deals worth a cumulative $24.3 million.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
