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2023
The award: On 9 February 2023 the Army awarded AM General the follow-on production contract for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle — the armored truck developed to succeed the Humvee in the roles the Iraq armor crisis had exposed. The award: a five-year base with five one-year options, up to 20,682 JLTV A2 vehicles and 9,883 trailers, a ceiling of $8.66 billion, with $230.8 million obligated at award, on two bids, by best-value determination. The incumbent, Oshkosh Defense — which had designed the vehicle, held the program since August 2015 at $6.75 billion, and delivered more than 24,000 JLTVs — protested on 6 March 2023; the Government Accountability Office denied the protest.
Building another company's design: The recompete was possible because the government owned the vehicle's technical data package, purchased from Oshkosh in 2016: AM General won the right to build, to print, a vehicle it did not design — a return, in an exact sense, to the company's origins building Reo, International, and Ford designs at Chippewa. Production was placed at a dedicated facility on the 96-acre Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus, and deliveries were promised to begin seventeen months after award.
Plant 2 and the abatement: The production home is Plant 2, expanded for the program in 2023: the South Bend Tribune reported construction moving rapidly that July on a nearly $70 million expansion — 74,000 square feet added to Plant 2 and nearly $60 million in new tooling and equipment — supported by a St. Joseph County tax abatement. The abatement filings carry the workforce figures used in the workforce entry below: the project was expected to preserve 371 existing jobs and create up to 329 new jobs at an average wage of $26.97 an hour. Senator Todd Young's tour of the plant on 23 February 2023, a fortnight after the award, had the company's CFO promising "hundreds" more workers and a fast start: "We have about 17 or 18 months before we have to produce the first JLTV."
Sources:
- U.S. Army award announcement, 9 February 2023 — the contract structure, quantities, ceiling, obligated amount, two bids, best-value determination; GAO bid-protest record — the Oshkosh protest of 6 March 2023 and its denial.
- Program record — the government-owned technical data package (purchased from Oshkosh, 2016); Oshkosh's 2015 award and 24,000-plus deliveries.
- South Bend Tribune, 13 July 2023 and 23 February 2023 — the nearly $70 million Plant 2 expansion (74,000 square feet, about $60 million tooling), the county abatement, 371 jobs preserved and up to 329 created at $26.97 average wage, the Young tour and DuRussel statements.