Army Prepare to Pick Tactical Truck Producers
The Army plans to pick numerous bidders to develop prototypes for its Common Tactical Truck competition early next year.
Brig. Gen. Luke Peterson, the Army's program executive officer in charge of combat support and combat service support, told Defense News in a recent interview that the military received "several" proposals to compete.
"We're on schedule for a January award," he added, "and it'll be more than one business as part of that prototype effort to truly allow the Army to evaluate existing commercial technology in a military-type application, adapted off-the-shelf for military uses."
The Army expects that the new trucks, which will replace its Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles, will address a dependability issue, as the military struggles to maintain its heritage vehicles, according to Peterson.
"We'll truly discover what industry has to give us, and affordability will be the primary driver here for the Army to make those educated judgments," Peterson continued.
In late June, the service issued a request for ideas to build prototypes. The prototype phase is intended to assist the Army in defining requirements.
Following the prototype phase, the Army intends to reopen the competition, this time inviting suppliers to submit proposals for the engineering and manufacturing development phase. The service plans to enter EMD in fiscal 2024 and to reach the production phase with a single winner by the end of FY26.
The initial production run might reach 5,700 automobiles for roughly $5 billion.
Hulking tactical vehicles were impossible to miss on the exhibition floor of the Association of the United States Army's annual conference earlier this month.
American Rheinmetall Vehicles and GM Defense, which announced their partnership in the CTT competition earlier this summer, showcased Rheinmetall's MAN Military Vehicles HX tactical military truck at GM Defense's two-story booth. The vehicle was transporting one of the Infantry Squad Vehicles being built by GM Defense for the United States Army.
"The Army customer says they want contemporary, innovative technologies based on commercial investments," GM Defense President Steve duMont told Defense News in August. "That's exactly what this team is planning to do."
Mack Defense presented its M917A3 Heavy Dump Truck, based on the commercially available Mack Granite model, to the conference. The Army granted Mack Defense a $296 million contract in 2018 to deliver dump trucks for over seven years to replace decades-old Army trucks. Mack began producing the cars in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2021.
Just ahead of AUSA, Dave Hartzell, the company's CEO, informed Defense News that it has made a bid for the CTT program's prototype phase.
The corporation is militarizing its foundation design and technologies from the Granite series of vehicles.
"We made some performance improvements to it to meet the Army's requirements for off-road capability, or mobility requirements, and then they have a force protection requirement, and there's an armoring requirement, so obviously, we had to design that to provide that capability as well," Hartzell explained.
Approximately 80% of the parts are interchangeable with Mack's commercial vehicle platforms. He stated that the Army needs "a commercial base vehicle platform that can still perform the mission duties that are necessary for the military use, but with as much commonality with private industry as feasible."
AM General also revealed at AUSA that it has placed a proposal for the CTT. AM General is collaborating with the Italian company IDV Iveco Defense Vehicles, which previously collaborated with BAE Systems to deliver the Amphibious Combat Vehicle for the United States Marine Corps.
AM General has long provided the US Army with Humvees and plans to bid again for the opportunity to produce the service's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle after losing to Oshkosh Defense in 2015. The Army is rebidding the contract and expects to choose a winner early next year.
According to AM General, "the team's High Mobility Range Vehicle architecture for CTT will be based on a newly introduced highly modular range of trucks, particularly tailored for military application."