UPDATED Washington: The Army has pushed its iconic Humvee combat truck as far as it can go and needs to press ahead with the Joint Tactical Light Vehicle. The Army cannot load any more armor, communications equipment or other next-generation gear onto the Humvee, according to Lt. Gen Robert Lennox, chief of the Army office…
By Carlo MunozB-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation
Technological advancements are key to keeping pace with customer demands and evolving threat landscapes.
Washington: The Army and Marine Corps have pulled out all the stops to save the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, but those efforts could end up killing the entire program. The Army claims it can buy the JLTV for just over $200,000 per truck, after drastically paring down the vehicle’s requirements. Previous estimates put the truck’s…
By Carlo MunozWashington: The Army is breaking in half its massive plan to revamp its Humvee fleet, giving industry two separate shots to lock in a part of the multimillion-dollar program. In the end, the Army will produce nearly 5,800 modified Humvees at a rate of three to four vehicles a day, under the Modernized Expanded Capability…
By Carlo MunozWashington: The fleet of up-armored, bomb-resistant vehicles DoD flooded onto the battlefield in recent years has saved the lives of untold numbers of American soldiers. Trucks like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle and the up-armored Humvee have given U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan a significant edge. But getting these massive trucks off the…
By Carlo MunozWashington: The Army may have to retool its plans to upgrade its Humvee fleet, if the proposed cancellation of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle is finalized. Companies vying for the Army’s Modernized Expanded Capacity Vehicle program had expected a draft proposals request from the Army to come out today. Last month, the service released an…
By Carlo MunozMt. Airy, N.C. – Behind the cornfields and gravel pits in the hills of this small North Carolina town sits an off-road test track. The two-mile trail, owned by defense firm Granite Tactical Systems, is where I put the company’s upgraded Humvee through its paces this week. A Granite-Textron team is pitching their advanced version…
By Carlo MunozMt. Airy, N.C. – The Army will officially kick off its multimillion program to revamp its Humvee fleet next week. So Breaking Defense headed here to get a look at what some of the competition is doing. The final request for proposals will likely hit the streets within weeks, with companies vying for the contract…
By Carlo Munoz
BAE Systems’ LR-PGK: The Superior Anti-Jam Solution
Going the distance to defeat emerging jam threats.
Mt. Airy, N.C. – Some have questioned the Army’s decision to pump millions into the aging Humvee, especially with defense spending expected to take a tumble over the next few years. Opponents argue the Humvee is simply an old warhorse that needs to be put down, replaced by more advanced systems already in the field,…
By Carlo MunozWashington: Bigger, tougher and meaner — that is what the Army wants from its Humvee fleet. And according to the draft list of requirements issued by the service’s contracting shop for the iconic combat vehicle, the Army now has a plan to do just that. For more news and information on the swiftly-changing defense industry,…
By Carlo MunozWashington: The Army had a plan to revamp its ground combat fleet that would carry the service into the next decade. Then the debt deal happened. Now, the Army is trying to figure out how to execute that strategy while meeting the $350 billion in defense cuts included in the White House debt reduction plan.…
By Carlo MunozThe Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle program may be running aground before it can even sign a development contract. And that’s a tragedy. A decade of casualties from improvised roadside bombs – simple weapons easily replicated by any future enemy – has shown that what the U.S. military needs most is the very thing the Ground…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Washington: The Army’s ground combat vehicles are back in the Pentagon’s cross hairs, with a large-scale program review scheduled for August. The DoD-led review, known in the Pentagon as a materiel development decision, will scrutinize most of the big-ticket programs in the service’s ground combat systems portfolio, except for ongoing efforts to recapitalize the Humvee.…
By Carlo MunozWashington: The Army’s Humvee has become a modern military icon, replacing the World War II-era Jeep as one of the most recognizable vehicles on the battlefield. It also provides just as much protection against improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades as those vehicles built by Henry Ford in the 1940’s. The introduction of up-armored versions…
By Carlo MunozU.S. troops will start pulling out of Afghanistan this summer. This raises the basic question — is the Afghan military ready to take over and would it survive the departure of much of the U.S. military. The plan is still to end the “combat mission,” whatever that means, in 2014, leaving behind trainers, advisers and…
By David Axe
