Safety, cost cuts help JLTV overtake Humvee - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Safety, cost cuts help JLTV overtake Humvee

It looks like the end of the road for the Humvee. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno on Jan. 25 listed the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle as one of his top three priorities and said the service can’t keep “hanging things on the Humvee.” That is a somewhat bold declaration for a program that was on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s chopping block just last year.

But Army and Marine Corps leaders trimmed vehicle costs by $100,000 and cut 16 months from the $52 million engineering, manufacturing and development phase. That brought the $270,000 base vehicle into the price range of a recapped Humvee.

Army leadership contends that the new JLTV, a multimission light vehicle with “superior crew protection and performance,” beats an upgraded Humvee hands-down. It issued a request for proposals the day after Odierno made his stand and hours before the Pentagon released its new, tighter budget.

Four primary contenders are vying for the contract: Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense and General Tactical Vehicles, a joint team of General Dynamics Land Systems and Humvee maker AM General. A source selection evaluation board will award up to three contracts this summer. Each will have 22 prototypes put through the wringer in a fast-paced 27-month acquisition strategy.

The Army wants at least 20,000 JLTVs, with the potential for a larger buy for the program, with an estimated worth of $20 billion. Army officials plan to replace a third of their 150,000-vehicle Humvee fleet with the JLTV. The Marine Corps plans to buy 5,500.

What it’s like

The JLTV will have the survivability of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, better mobility than a Humvee and the ability to add mission kits. It will be transportable by ship or helicopter and be able to provide 30 kilowatts of exportable power. Variants with companion trailers include:

• The utility carrier and shelter (JLTV-UTL). This two-seat prime mover has an open bed for non-shelter cargo and can tow everything from 105mm howitzers to Q-36 radars.

• The general-purpose vehicle (JLTV-GP) is designed to move troops and small supply items around the battlefield. With a kit upgrade, it can become a command-and-control platform that provides access to the network and applications that support maneuver, fires, aviation, intelligence, signal and logistics.

• The heavy guns carrier (JLTV-HGC) is a JLTV-GP mission package that accommodates mounted crew-served weapons in a protected gun mount.

• The close-combat weapons carrier (JLTV-CCWC) is an anti-tank/anti-armor platform that will employ the Army’s TOW-Improved Target Acquisition System and the Marine Corps’ Saber weapons, and direct-fire kinetic weapons such as the M2 .50-cal machine gun.

The utility variant is a two-seater. All others have four seats. The JLTV-GP and CCWC can carry 5,100 pounds. The trailer can carry 6,000 pounds and the JLTV-UTL can haul 11,000 pounds.

The Pentagon requires at least 600 mean miles before an essential function failure. The JLTV must also operate in altitudes from minus 500 feet to 12,000 feet and maintain full mission capability in temperatures from minus 40 degrees to 125 degrees, according to established requirements. When temperatures drop well below zero, the JLTV must start within one minute with no external aids, kits or prior warming of the batteries.

Once fired up, the vehicle can go 350 paved miles at 35 mph or 300 miles in operational terrain on a single tank of JP-8 fuel. The JLTV can go from 0 to 30 mph in seven seconds on dry, level, hard terrain, and can ford 60 inches of saltwater obstacle without a fording kit, in forward and reverse, while maintaining contact with the ground.

The JLTV is said to perform as well as or better than the Humvee in practically every category. It has a 25-foot turning radius and can take on 24-inch vertical obstacles in forward and reverse. It can drive off an 18-inch vertical step at 15 mph and sustain no mechanical damage. It can traverse a 20-degree V-ditch that is 25 feet wide at an approach angle of 45 degree. It can jump a 6-inch parallel curb at 15 mph and traverse a 20-foot flight of stairs at 5 mph. It can handle a 60 percent dry, hard-surfaced grade and can traverse a 40 percent slope with no degradation in driver control.

Weighing in at no more than 12,660 pounds, the JLTV can be prepared in 30 minutes for transport by aircraft, Maritime Prepositioning Force ships or rail. This is aided by an adjustable-height suspension that includes five heights.

To keep costs down, the Army opted for an “incrementally scalable” C4ISR solution. Simply put, you take only what you need.

But some cool features are common to all the vehicles. One example is the Central Tire Inflation System, which allows the driver to adjust vehicle tires to any one of four preset tire pressures: highway, cross country, mud/snow/sand and emergency. It takes two minutes to deflate from one setting to the next, and from two to six minutes to inflate, depending on the setting. A visual indicator warns the driver of excessive speed at pressure conditions.

Safety is a key factor in the vehicle’s design. Two soldiers can install B-kit armor in five hours. An 800-pound RPG protection kit can be installed in two hours at field-level maintenance and completed by the crew within 30 minutes. Each vehicle has a backup viewing capability that also provides a 25-foot situational awareness to your six o’clock.

The JLTV also has an automatic fire-extinguishing system to protect the crew cabin and engine compartment. Fixed fuel tanks are self-sealing, mounted externally and shielded by the JLTV structure. Each crew seat has a combined seat and blast restraint device. Ingress time for a crew of four in combat equipment is 30 seconds or less. Egress with B-kit doors is within 10 seconds.

And let us not forget the creature comforts.

The heater can raise the crew compartment from a bitter minus 40 to a comfortable 65 degrees in one hour. The air conditioner can drop the temp from 120 to 90 degrees within 40 minutes. That leaves plenty of time to put the adjustable driver seat in the right position. And when the road is long, the driver and commander can place their 12- or 24-ounce drinks in the JLTV’s two cup holders.

The contenders

BAE Systems calls its JLTV the “Valanx,” a combination of the ancient Greek “phalanx” formation designed to protect soldiers in combat, and a nod to the V-shaped hull designed to deflect a mine blast away from the vehicle. BAE teamed with the existing commercial base in a strategy to keep production and spare parts costs down.

Northrop Grumman has the lead on command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The vehicle comes with a Navistar engine, Allison transmission and Meritor suspension. Clip structures forward and back take the load into the suspension system to provide greater survivability.

The General Dynamics/AM General vehicle combines General Dynamics’ skills in survivability — such as the Stryker’s double-V hull — with AM General’s experience in this arena. The latter’s influence is evident when looking at the vehicle, which some have described as a “Hummer on steroids.”

Lockheed Martin’s JLTV is designed to bridge the capability gap between the Humvee and MRAP all-terrain vehicle by boosting mobility, payload and force protection. Soldiers will especially appreciate the user-friendly crew cab, which was designed around the war fighter. Lockheed’s aerospace background and systems integration experience enabled it to put a substantial amount of capability into the dashboard, which frees space for the war fighter.

Oshkosh Defense did not participate in the JLTV technical development phase, but looked to its strong history with the M-ATV to produce the Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle, or L-ATV, using the M-ATV’s modular and scalable protection.

It replaces the diesel-electric power train with an electric power train, but its key strength is its mobility. The vehicle includes the TAK-4i intelligent suspension system. The system provides up to 20 inches of independent wheel travel. These combine to provide a vehicle that is 50 percent faster off-road than the M-ATV.