AMPV1

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, received the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle on March 13, signifying the completion of the Army’s first unit equipped for the platform. (US Army/Dan Heaton)

This report was updated at 8:50 am ET to include a statement from BAE.

WASHINGTON — US Army leaders are poised to make their delayed Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) full-rate production decision later this month, but in the meantime, they have provided BAE Systems with money to purchase long-lead items and keep the production line moving, according to several officials.

On Monday, the Army completed delivery of nearly 20 AMPVs to soldiers with the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., making them the first unit equipped with the new tracked combat vehicle. With that milestone achieved, program officials are eyeing an upcoming production decision that will require BAE Systems to expand its AMPV production facilities to build more vehicles each month.

“The full-rate production decision is now scheduled for March, and that was [moved because] we really had some challenges getting on senior leader calendars,” Jim Schirmer, the deputy Program Executive Officer for Ground Combat Systems, told reports on call today. Since there has been a multi-month delay in making the decision that leads to a new contract, he explained that the Army decided to award the company $245 million earlier this month to keep the production line “humming while we negotiate the [full-rate production] contract and those negotiations are ongoing.”

The Army is replacing its legacy M113 armored personnel carrier with the AMPV line that currently includes five configurations: general purpose, mission command, mortar carriers, medical evacuation, and medical treatment. If the service ultimately greenlights AMPV full-rate production this month, it is a big vote of confidence for a program that has been riddled with delays and questions about production quality. Several years ago, those questions even prompted the Army to rebaseline the program and move the forthcoming production decision from fiscal 2022 to 2023 so that BAE could make production line improvements and ramp up numbers. 

“We did have a lot of struggles in the beginning, [but] we’re pretty confident now that the prime contractor, BAE, has worked through that,” Schirmer said. “They’ve been delivering on time for the majority of the past year and the quality problems that we were seeing early on have largely been corrected. So, at this point, we’re pretty satisfied with where we are.”

Now if contract negotiations shake out, BAE will have more work to do since within the next two years it will need to move from producing 12 vehicles per month up to roughly 16, with the goal of churning out 197 AMPVs each year, or enough for a brigade-and-a-half.

To meet that increased demand, the company will need additional space at its York, Pa. facility, which may require the company to move production of other vehicles to different locations, added Lt Col Nate Costa, the product manager for AMPVs. The company will also need to invest in additional robotic welding machines and paint booth capability, he added.

In a statement, BAE spokesperson Amanda Niswonger confirmed plans to enlarge the York facility and said, “Delivering these vehicles to the Army for First Unit Equipped is a milestone we’re very proud of, and we are eager for Soldier feedback.

“We are planning for Full Rate Production and other production needs, and have strategies in place to expand our AMPV production line in York,” she said. “We remain committed to delivering capability that will give our troops an operational advantage for decades to come. Our plans to manage our workload across our network of production facilities in the U.S. means we are able to deliver to our customer priorities across all our programs .”

Funding And Outyears 

While AMPV program officials work towards inking a new deal, on Monday the Pentagon began releasing budget information about plans to spend $842 billion in FY24, including on AMPV.  Although the services have not yet released their budget justification documents — those are expected to be made public by March 17 — initial paperwork shows that the Army is requesting $554.8 million for 91 AMPVs next year in its base budget, or 40 fewer than it anticipated requesting this time last year.

However, Schirmer said the service is not reducing its AMPV buy, just working with different pots of money. Because the Army has been sending M113 vehicles from its stockpiles to Ukraine, it has received approximately $400 million in supplemental funding to replace those vehicles with 154 AMPVs. In turn, lawmakers only provided the service with $380.7 million in the FY23 base budget to buy 43 AMPVs instead of the 72 vehicles the Army initially requested. The service was then able to reduce its FY24 AMPV request for next year, since money is still available to buy new vehicles.

While Army leaders spend the upcoming months briefing lawmakers on their spending plans for next year, Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, the director for the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross Functional Team, said the Army is already considering creating new AMPV variants since work on the line, to date, has centered around producing AMPVs for Armored Brigade Combat Teams.

“In particular, there are field artillery units that are equipped with M577 and M1068 command post vehicles and those are in the fires units at echelons above brigade. And, there are also engineers that are equipped with M113s,” Norman added. “The Army’s taking a hard look at what the right vehicle solution is for those engineers, those non-brigade combat team engineers.”