Oshkosh dangles JLTV bridge option for Marine Corps, but the deadline to take it is looming

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle is seen here driving on a course at Fort McCoy, Wisc., Aug. 17, 2022. (Spc. Brittney Joy/US Army)

OSHKOSH, Wis. — Oshkosh Defense has given the Marine Corps until Oct. 31 to decide whether the service will accept the firm’s offer to provide Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) to Marines in less than a year, as AM General sorts out production delays after winning the contract for the JLTV’s upgraded variant.

Oshkosh Defense’s representatives say they haven’t received any indication that the Marines will bite, leaving the future of the company’s existing JLTV production line up in the air and sparking a full-court press campaign by the firm to showcase its offering. Oshkosh has flown reporters out to its facilities in Oshkosh, Wis., for an exhibition of their production line, and hosted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth there as well in August for his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, where he walked through manufacturing facilities and viewed the vehicles being built — including the JLTV.

Officials at Oshkosh say their offering, known as a “production bridge,” will not only assist the Marine Corps with its modernization efforts, but also support competitor AM General amid delivery setbacks of its A2 variant of the JLTV.

“Every day that units aren’t hitting the fleet is a day later that modernization occurs, and so their mission is what’s at risk,” Logan Jones, chief growth officer for Oshkosh Corporation’s transport segment, told Breaking Defense during a trip to Oshkosh’s facilities.

“The other thing, the reason why we call it a bridge, is we all hope the A2 lives into production, serves the needs of both the Army, Navy, Air Force, everybody, right? But what this really is is an insurance program,” Jones said. “There’s a delay. We can help you with your modernization and allow time for that current contract to catch up on production. So that’s why we call it a bridge program. But what’s at risk is modernization.”

While Oshkosh previously won a contract in 2015 as the sole supplier of the A1 JLTV for the Army and the Marine Corps, AM General secured a follow-on production contract in 2023 with its A2 variant.

Under Oshkosh’s production bridge proposal to the Marine Corps, the company says it has allocated more than $50 million in private capital to go toward production capacity and to nail down long-lead materials for the JLTV.

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Additionally, Oshkosh says it can deliver 1,200 JLTVs annually — the first of which would be delivered to the Marine Corps in 10 months. The firm said the production bridge proposal factors in current workforce, production space, and supplier assumptions. If, however, the Marine Corps waits until after Oct. 31, such details must be reevaluated.

Jones said that while the Marine Corps has told Oshkosh it is aware of the deadline and understands the rationale, the company has received “no indication of direction or anything like that from them.”

“If there’s no demand signal, we’ll have to figure out what to do with it,” Jones said. “It could be servicing the existing fleet, could be international partners, could be partner programs like ROGUE Fires or other things.”

The Marine Corps did not respond to a request for comment from Breaking Defense by publication time. The service did put forth a solicitation in May seeking a second JLTV supplier, stating that it was looking for “mature, production-ready, rapidly fieldable” commercial or “non-developmental” JLTV variants.

At the time, the service told Breaking Defense that it “continuously evaluates acquisition options to ensure it can meet approved JLTV requirements, preserve readiness, and reduce fielding risk.”

Since then, Oshkosh has positioned itself to supply the Marine Corps with its JLTV A1 model, whose production line has remained active for its commercial business. Likewise, the Netherlands tapped Oshkosh to produce a Dutch JLTV in 2025.

The Marine Corps is requesting $244.9 million in its fiscal year 2027 budget request to procure more than 340 A2 JLTVs. Altogether, the Marine Corps wants 12,500 JLTVs, but Oshkosh says the service has received less than 60 percent of its acquisition objective.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns about AM General’s ability to produce JLTVs, and claim the firm is nearly two years behind delivering the vehicles. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., wrote a letter in June to then-Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll calling the delay “unacceptable performance for one of DoD’s largest vehicles contracts.”

AM General did not respond to a request for comment from Breaking Defense. In June, though, AM General CEO John Chadbourne pointed to “complex” transition issues as the culprit of such delays and said that the company plans to hit full-rate production by 2027.

Even so, Oshkosh Defense maintains that the production bridge isn’t an attempt to undermine AM General.

“This could be misunderstood or misconstrued that we have some agenda to push AM General to fail,” Pat Williams, chief programs officer at Oshkosh Defense, told Breaking Defense. “That’s actually not the case. I hope that they find a way to make it work. … Our whole goal is to help the Marine Corps find a bridge to buy AM General time.”

图中所示为联合轻型战术车辆在威斯康星州麦考伊堡的训练场上行驶，拍摄时间为2022年8月17日。（美国陆军下士布里特妮·乔伊摄）

威斯康星州奥什科什——奥什科什防务公司要求海军陆战队在 10 月 31 日前决定是否接受该公司提供的联合轻型战术车辆 (JLTV)，该公司将在不到一年的时间内向海军陆战队交付 JLTV。此前，AM General 公司赢得了 JLTV 升级版的合同，目前正在解决生产延误问题。

奥什科什防务公司的代表表示，他们尚未收到任何海军陆战队会采纳其产品的迹象，这使得该公司现有联合轻型战术车辆（JLTV）生产线的未来充满不确定性，并引发了该公司全力以赴的宣传攻势。奥什科什公司已安排记者前往其位于威斯康星州奥什科什的工厂参观其生产线，并在8月份接待了国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯，后者参观了其“自由兵工厂”之旅，并视察了生产设施和正在制造的车辆，其中包括JLTV。

奥什科什的官员表示，他们提供的“生产桥梁”不仅将帮助海军陆战队进行现代化工作，还将在竞争对手 AM General 的 JLTV A2 型交付受阻期间为其提供支持。

“每多一天，部队就少一天投入使用，现代化进程也就推迟一天，因此，他们的任务就会面临风险，”奥什科什公司运输部门首席增长官洛根·琼斯在参观奥什科什工厂时告诉《防务新闻》。

琼斯说：“我们之所以称之为‘桥梁计划’，是因为我们都希望A2能够顺利投产，满足陆军、海军、空军以及所有军种的需求，对吧？但实际上，这是一个保险计划。目前存在延误。我们可以帮助您进行现代化改造，并争取时间让现有合同的进度赶上生产进度。所以我们称之为‘桥梁计划’。但面临风险的是现代化改造。”

虽然 Oshkosh 此前在 2015 年赢得了一份合同，成为陆军和海军陆战队 A1 JLTV 的唯一供应商，但 AM General 在 2023 年凭借其 A2 型号获得了后续生产合同。

根据奥什科什公司向海军陆战队提出的生产过渡方案，该公司表示已拨款超过 5000 万美元的私人资本，用于提高生产能力并确定 JLTV 的长周期材料。

生物防御就是部队防护：今日做好准备，明日应对。

一位功勋卓著的战斗机飞行员兼生物技术公司首席执行官倡导在下一次危机到来之前，为应对新型病毒威胁做好准备。

此外，奥什科什公司表示，其每年可交付1200辆联合轻型战术车辆（JLTV），首辆将于10个月后交付给海军陆战队。该公司称，生产过渡方案已考虑了现有劳动力、生产空间和供应商的预期情况。然而，如果海军陆战队等到10月31日之后才下单，则这些细节需要重新评估。

琼斯表示，虽然海军陆战队已经告诉奥什科什公司，他们知道最后期限并理解其中的理由，但该公司“没有收到海军陆战队的任何指示或类似信息”。

琼斯说：“如果没有需求信号，我们就得想想该怎么办。这可能包括维护现有车队、与国际合作伙伴合作、开展像ROGUE Fires这样的合作项目或其他项目。”

截至发稿时，美国海军陆战队尚未回复《防务新闻》的置评请求。该军种曾在5月份发布招标公告，寻求第二家联合轻型战术车辆（JLTV）供应商，并表示正在寻找“成熟、可量产、可快速部署”的商用或“非研发型”JLTV衍生车型。

当时，该军种告诉《防务新闻》，它“不断评估采购方案，以确保能够满足已批准的联合轻型战术车辆 (JLTV) 要求，保持战备状态，并降低部署风险”。

此后，奥什科什公司一直致力于向美国海军陆战队供应其JLTV A1型联合轻型战术车辆，该车型的生产线也一直为该公司的商业业务保持运转。同样，荷兰也委托奥什科什公司在2025年生产荷兰版JLTV。

美国海军陆战队在其2027财年预算申请中要求拨款2.449亿美元，用于采购340多辆A2型联合轻型战术车辆（JLTV）。海军陆战队总共希望采购12500辆JLTV，但奥什科什公司表示，海军陆战队目前仅获得了不到60%的采购目标。

与此同时，两党议员都对AM General公司生产联合轻型战术车辆（JLTV）的能力表示担忧，并声称该公司交付车辆的进度已落后近两年。威斯康星州民主党参议员塔米·鲍德温（Tammy Baldwin）在6月份致信时任陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔（Dan Driscoll），称这种延误“对于国防部最大的车辆合同之一而言是不可接受的”。

AM General公司未回复Breaking Defense的置评请求。不过，AM General首席执行官约翰·查德伯恩(John Chadbourne)在6月份曾指出，造成延误的原因是“复杂的”过渡问题，并表示公司计划在2027年实现全面投产。

即便如此，奥什科什防务公司仍然坚持认为，生产桥梁并非意在破坏 AM General 的业务。

“这可能会被误解或曲解，以为我们有什么不可告人的目的，要让AM General公司失败，”奥什科什防务公司首席项目官帕特·威廉姆斯告诉《防务新闻》。“事实并非如此。我希望他们能找到解决办法……我们的目标是帮助海军陆战队找到一条出路，为AM General公司争取时间。”