Photo: Oshkosh Defense
When it comes to military bidding processes, things can easily get out of control. A case in point is the replacement for the Humvee. Its operational capability won’t be reached on time because Lockheed Martin is a bad loser. That’s right, a sore loser.
Back in August 2015, three companies entered the bidding war for a Humvee-replacing four-wheel-drive military vehicle because the HMMWV is getting a little bit old now. Those companies are AM General (the creators of the Humvee), Lockheed Martin and Oshkosh. As fate would have it, Oshkosh won the contract. The deal between the US Army and the winning company is said to be worth something in the vicinity of $6.7 billion, money that will go on an initial batch of 17,000 vehicles. Those $6.7 billion could balloon to $30 billion if the US Army wants more vehicles.
As reported by the peeps at Defense News, Lockheed Martin lodged a protest over the Accountability Office's decision two weeks after the contract was awarded to Oshkosh, after which the protest was thrown out in December. Lockheed Martin, like the sore loser it is, then filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims. The problem with this uproar is, Oshkosh couldn’t work on the contract during the protest period, idling the program from September to December. Because of this, Oshkosh is behind schedule, which means that the Oshkosh joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV) will hit operational capability in late 2019 or early 2020.
“A 90-day delay grew into about six- or an eight-month delay just because of the difficulty of rescheduling a test phase that we were going to do, which then impacts the decision date for the full-rate production decision; which, in turn, puts our funding out of phase for the JLTV program,” said Thomas Dee, the deputy assistant secretary of Naval Expeditionary Programs and Logistics Management.
Introduced in 1984 and with 281,000 units produced to this date, the gray-haired Humvee has proved what it had to prove. Soon enough, the Oshkosh JLTV will start to serve and protect the Red, White and Blue.
As reported by the peeps at Defense News, Lockheed Martin lodged a protest over the Accountability Office's decision two weeks after the contract was awarded to Oshkosh, after which the protest was thrown out in December. Lockheed Martin, like the sore loser it is, then filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims. The problem with this uproar is, Oshkosh couldn’t work on the contract during the protest period, idling the program from September to December. Because of this, Oshkosh is behind schedule, which means that the Oshkosh joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV) will hit operational capability in late 2019 or early 2020.
“A 90-day delay grew into about six- or an eight-month delay just because of the difficulty of rescheduling a test phase that we were going to do, which then impacts the decision date for the full-rate production decision; which, in turn, puts our funding out of phase for the JLTV program,” said Thomas Dee, the deputy assistant secretary of Naval Expeditionary Programs and Logistics Management.
Introduced in 1984 and with 281,000 units produced to this date, the gray-haired Humvee has proved what it had to prove. Soon enough, the Oshkosh JLTV will start to serve and protect the Red, White and Blue.
Google News