PALUBA

Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh have finished the second prototype of a vehicle they will enter in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) competition to build a next-generation Humvee for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.
The so-called category B vehicle, kept quietly under a tent during the Association of the U.S. Army's annual winter convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was viewed by the Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Richard Cody, as well as Maj. Gen. Mike Lanears and Gen. Benjamin Griffin, according to Northrop and Oshkosh officials.
The vehicle featured a bolt-on armor kit, a new type of drive-train suspension, an Allison transmission and a CAT-C7 engine, said Ken Juergens, Oshkosh's JLTV program director. The program aims to introduce the JLTV into service in 2012, but the Army is hoping to move that date up, said Lanears, who runs the service's Tank and Automotive Command (TACOM), which will hold the JLTV competition.

Northrop and Oshkosh officials declined to say much about the prototype, citing the competition for which they are now drafting their proposal to submit to TACOM. They did say they had spent more than $15 million on their JLTVs. "We are working right now on three prototypes, one of each of the classes," said Joe Taylor, vice president of land systems for Northrop Grumman, who is a retired major general. "That will be our test-bed vehicles during TD [technical demonstration] and SDD [system design and development] phases."

Building three prototypes will allow the Northrop-Oshkosh team to make changes and adjustments to their vehicles or replace key parts such as sensors after they provide a prototype to the Army.

The Northrop-Oshkosh vehicle is built to accommodate a lightweight active protection system for thin-skinned vehicles.

"We have designed it to use any APS [active protection] system out there; part of the design is to be able to accept any of them," Taylor said.

Northrop and Oshkosh engineers say their vehicle can meet the JLTV's requirement for exportable power.

"We will use an innovative power technology that will lend itself to a vehicle that will be in the service for more than three decades," Taylor said.

The vehicle's electronic systems will be provided by Northrop, maker of the Blue Force Tracking units in thousands of Army vehicles, he said.

Oshkosh and Northrop are well-suited to build a 7-ton JLTV, Juergens said, in part because the program calls for a vehicle at least 3 to 4 tons heavier than the current Humvee, and Oshkosh has experience in building vehicles at heavier weights.

Oshkosh makes the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, a 19-ton logistics and equipment tactical truck; and the Marine Corps Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement, a 13-ton medium-weight vehicle.