While the Army has repeatedly said it does not want to spend any more money on Abrams tanks, more than 120 members of the House have sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh asking that the service pump additional funding into upgrading the tanks for the National Guard, but not in fiscal year 2014.

A contract for a next-generation U.S. Special Operations Command ground vehicle scheduled to be awarded this month has slipped into August, according to industry sources.

The future of the Ground Combat Vehicle acquisition and the health of the combat vehicle industrial base were prominent topics on Capitol Hill last week as lawmakers probed top Army leaders for answers.

BAE Systems recently completed human factors and amphibious operations evaluations of its prototype for the Marine Personnel Carrier program, according to John Swift, the company's MPC program manager.

The Marine Corps expects to release a final request for proposals for its Family of Combat Convoy Trainers competition on June 10, and the service recently provided government furnished information about the competition, according to Federal Business Opportunities.

The Army is pushing back against a Congressional Budget Office report criticizing the Ground Combat Vehicle program as risky and unaffordable compared to alternative vehicles, according to an internal Pentagon information paper obtained by Inside the Army.

The Army has pegged several major acquisition programs for budget transfers to help pay warfighting bills accumulated in Afghanistan in fiscal year 2013, with the Apache helicopter, the Warfighter Information Network Tactical system and armored trucks being among the biggest bill-payers, according to a draft Pentagon reprogramming request obtained by InsideDefense.com.

Vehicle industrial base issues loomed large at a House hearing last week in which the Army attempted to justify fiscal year 2014 spending plans that do not include new production funding for facilities that manufacture Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

BAE Systems went to Capitol Hill last week with more than 500 subcontractors and suppliers to argue that the Army should accelerate planned upgrades to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, thereby preventing a production gap at the company's facility in York, PA.

The Army expects to issue a formal request for proposals for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle on June 28, according to information presented during an industry briefing last week.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $1 million prize last week to a team of developers with the best mobility and drive train design for the Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG).

The Marine Corps recently reached out to both small business and academia to participate in research for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program, according to service spokeswoman Capt. Nicole Fiedler.

The Army has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems and BAE Systems contracts totaling $340 million to extend the technology development phase of the Ground Combat Vehicle by six months, according to a Defense Department notice.

The Marine Corps will make a decision in the fall on whether it will buy a high water speed or slower moving vehicle for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program after the cost of the high water version is determined, according to the top Marine Corps officer.

The Marine Corps has slashed $160.9 million of procurement funding in its fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Light Armored Vehicle due to a one-year delay in the start of production of the anti-tank modernization program and the survivability upgrade program, according to a service spokesman.

The Marine Corps will depend on overseas contingency operations funding of about $2 billion to reset its vehicles coming out of Afghanistan -- about $1 billion less than what the service initially estimated -- and the service acknowledges it does have a back-up plan if that money is not available, according to an official.

The new chairman of an influential House defense subcommittee has targeted the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle and a perceived lack of funding for the service's combat vehicle industrial base as two of his top priorities.

The Marine Corps is putting a hold on its Marine Personnel Carrier program later in the fiscal year after prototype testing is complete, and the service is working through future plans for the program, service spokesman Manny Pacheco said.

Foreshadowing the budget conflict to come, BAE Systems, the Army's contractor for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and M88A2 Hercules, criticized the service's fiscal year 2014 budget request for not including spending that would keep the company's combat vehicle facility in York, PA, running at a sustainable level.

The Army has highlighted the continued development of new military vehicles as a high priority in its fiscal year 2014 budget request and is seeking more than $1 billion in research and development funding to get there.