Follow InsideDefense.com on TwitterFord Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, has discussed with the Defense Department the possibility of competing to build the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a prospect that government sources say influenced DOD's recent move to drastically lower cost targets.
Ford, which cranked out Vietnam-era Jeeps and other trucks for more than two decades before largely exiting the military tactical vehicle business in the early 1980s, has considered leveraging its commercial truck line to build a vehicle that -- in partnership with a defense contractor -- could be outfitted with armor kits to give the automaker a renewed stake in the Pentagon's industrial base, according to DOD officials.
"They were represented at Industry Day," Gen. Joseph Dunford, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said on Nov. 30 of Ford, referring to a Nov. 18 meeting that he and Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, hosted to meet with senior executives from all potential JLTV bidders.
"Yeah, that's exciting," Dunford told InsideDefense.com during a brief interview in New York. "Competition is good."
A Ford spokesman, however, declined to explicitly confirm the company's interest in the JLTV program. "We have a long history of working with the government and we continue to look at new ideas and projects," Mike Levine, a Ford spokesman, told InsideDefense.com on Dec. 9.
Whether Ford and its partner jump into the competition will be determined by the final request for proposals for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the JLTV program, expected in early 2012. Commercial automakers, according to one industry expert, require at least 36 months to design a vehicle, a bit longer than the 32-month window in the Army's current plan for the JLTV's EMD phase.
Should the Detroit automaker decide to go for it, the bid would mark a second and likely more ambitious attempt to compete in the JLTV program. In 2008, Ford teamed as a subcontractor -- offering engine options and expertise in power-train integration -- on a Textron Systems-Boeing-SAIC team that failed to win one of three JLTV technology-development contracts.
At Ford's invitation, Army leaders -- including Chiarelli -- earlier this year traveled to Michigan to see the company's facilities and receive briefings on how the carmaker might use its commercial truck line to fashion a vehicle that could be ruggedized by another company for tactical operations, government officials said. These sources noted that part of the pitch was a way to deliver a vehicle at much lower cost. Federal cost estimates last year pegged the base JLTV's cost, before equipment with radios, weapons and other tactical equipment, at $350,000.
In September, after the Senate Appropriations Committee called for terminating the JLTV program due in part to rising costs, the Army and the Marine Corps quickly fashioned a plan to resuscitate the program, slashing cost targets to between $230,000 and $270,000 per vehicle.
The bid to aggressively lower the cost target was an effort to convince lawmakers and senior Pentagon officials that a new light tactical vehicle could be had for less -- a conviction, Army officials said, based in significant measure by discussions with Ford.
A key player in discussions between Ford and the Army, according to government officials, is Robert Linton, a New York businessman. Linton declined numerous requests to answer questions about his role in discussions with Ford and the Army.
A Ford spokesman declined to say whether Linton was formally deputized by Ford to speak on the company's behalf to DOD for the purposes of the next JLTV program; the spokesman would only reiterate Ford's history of working with the government and continuing interest in pursuing new efforts.
Linton and Ford's discussions with the Army have "had a lot of impact on things because they have a different approach; it's more of a normal business approach," said one service official. "That's one of the reasons we've gone back to look at how we were going to do this, because they brought some new things to our attention."
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, speaking to the House Armed Services Committee on Nov. 2, expressed confidence in being able to bring JLTV costs down in part because of the interest of vehicle suppliers beyond the traditional defense base.
"As we look at the JLTV that we're developing along with the Marine Corps, we have competitors coming in who are developing their own products -- four, five different competitors, not necessarily one of the large defense contractors -- who are coming up with systems and ways for us to look at and provide us options that I think will be much more fundamental and much more resource-friendly to us as we move forward," Odierno told the House panel last month.
Three companies in 2008 won TD contracts for the program: BAE Systems Land & Armaments; Lockheed Martin; and General Tactical Vehicles, a joint venture of General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General.
Dunford told InsideDefense.com last month that he and Chiarelli met with a total of 11 potential bidders for the next round of JLTV work. -- Jason Sherman, with additional reporting by Tony Bertuca
