UPDATED with Technical Data Package details PENTAGON: As the Army moves billions into new high-tech weapons, truck-maker Oshkosh is feeling the pinch. The 2021 budget request not only decreases spending on three Oshkosh vehicles, the 10-wheel FHTV, the 6-wheel FMTV, and 4×4 JLTV: It also calls for a new competition the following fiscal year for JLTV, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle originally meant to replace the Humvee.
Why recompete? “We do that to drive the price down,” said Deputy Assistant Army Secretary John Daniels this morning, when my colleague Jen Judson asked about the proposal. But any new competition would be two fiscal years from now and Daniels declined to give any details.
The only other information about the plan is buried on page 102 of the fifth volume of the Army’s newly released procurement request for 2021, which also includes projections for 2022 and beyond. Under JLTV, the “justification book” says that:
“Current contract options may be exercised through 30 November 2023 assuming contractual quantity headspace is still available. Current funding indicates headspace quantity of 16,901 may be achieved in FY 2021, with competitive follow on contract award anticipated in FY 2022. A split procurement will occur between the existing Oshkosh contract and the new competitively awarded contract based on the approved acquisition strategy. The Program Office continues to gather insight from industry partners to better understand their position to ensure strong competition for the follow on contract.”
In plain English, this means Oshkosh’s current contract to build Joint Light Tactical Vehicles runs though fall 2023. Since production will continue for decades, the Army will have to award a new contract to buy more JLTVs for itself, the other services and allies. But when it comes time to award that follow-on contract, the service doesn’t want Oshkosh to be its only option: It wants at least one competitor to drive down costs.
That sounds like Capitalism 101, but it’s not so simple to do in practice. The Army historically prefers to have large numbers of a single type of vehicle: A homogenous force allows efficiencies of scale. If you have lots of different types of vehicles doing the same job, each one requires a different training course for troops, a stockpile of unique and incompatible spare parts, its own development and testing program, and its own production line. (In fact, Nazi Germany’s fondness for small production runs of many different types of trucks, tanks, and other vehicles was yet one more reason it lost the war).
So there are two ways the Army could create competition for JLTV, each with its own difficulties:
Neither the Army nor Oshkosh responded to our questions. If they do, we’ll update this story or publish a sequel when we learn more.
[Click here to read our follow-on story with more from the government and Oshkosh]