Frag Out! Magazine

was eventually canceled at the beginning of 2012 in order to continue works within the scope of the JLTV program. The Congress decided that it would be more advanta- geous for the army to introduce, within several years, a new construction with a medium unit cost assessed for about $300,000 (depending on the version of the vehicle, $230,000 to $270,000 plus the $65,000 for armor pack- age) rather that introduce a modernization of relatively old vehicles that was that meant not so significantly lower costs (the unit cost of the deep upgreade of HMMWV was estimated for about $200,000). In January 2012, the JLTV EMD phase RFP was released. It concerned the engineering and production stage of the JLTV program and seven companies answered to this RFP. It must be highlighted here that the last tenderer re- vealed itself publicly in September – a dozen days after the announcement of the results of the tender: • AM General with BRV-O (Blast-Resistant Vehicle – Off Road), the construction of which was largely based on ex- perience of the manufacturer during the works over the modernization package of HMMWV MECV; • GTV (still with the participation of AM General), this time with the new construction based on the MOWAG Eagle IV; • BAE Systems (but without Navistar, which was replaced by Ford), with the modified Valanx known from the devel- opment stage; • Lockheed Martin with the modified Lockheed Martin JLTV (mainly a lowered empty weight); • Navistar Defense with Saratoga; • Oshkosh Defense with L-ATV 4x4 (Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle). • Hardwire, the seventh, most mysterious company, was the relatively small buisnness which produced (and co-de- signed with DSM Dyneema) the Hardwire HDX composite armor that is used in some MRAP vehicles and which was the co-designer of the idea of SBC. Official sources related to Hardwire claim that the company offered its own con- struction with an innovative diesel-electric hybrid drive, but details of the offer have not been revealed yet. On 23 August 2012, the tender for the engineering and production stage of the JLTV program was finalized and 27-month contracts, of total value of $185 million, were VEHICLES

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