On Friday, the Army is slated to review modernization decisions for its entire combat vehicle portfolio including the Abrams tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Stryker and the new Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle intended to replace the M113 carrier.
Industry officials are hoping the Army's upcoming meeting will yield the major modernization decisions they have been waiting for since March.
Defense
insiders say that the Army was prepared to notify three industry teams last
week regarding the success or failure of their bids to win
technology-demonstration contracts for the Ground Combat Vehicle, until
officials from the Pentagon's newly empowered cost assessment shop stepped in and
demanded more oversight.
The troubled Marine Corps short-take-off, vertical-landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is "pretty close" to ending its two-year probation early, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos said at a conference today.
"I think it's important that it gets out [from under probation], and I think we're probably pretty close right now to qualifying for getting out," Amos said during a conference on amphibious operations in Washington.
Although a key memo had not yet been signed as of Friday, a
Defense Acquisition Board review on July 21 cleared the Army's Ground Combat
Vehicle to proceed into its technology-development phase, according to sources
with knowledge of the decision.
While the Army has yet to properly incorporate energy
efficiency into its acquisition requirements model, a senior-level service
official says a new approach is on the way, specifically for the anticipated
Ground Combat Vehicle.
Although a key memo has not yet been signed, a Defense Acquisition Board review has cleared the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle to proceed into its technology-development phase, according to sources with knowledge of the decision.
The Army expects to award up to three contracts within the next 10 days, one source said.
While the Army has yet to properly incorporate energy efficiency into its acquisition requirements model, a senior-level service official says a new approach is on the way, specifically for the anticipated Ground Combat Vehicle.
Industry leaders are awaiting a series of decisions in early
August that they hope will bring clarity on the way ahead for key Army ground
vehicle programs.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee has denied a
Defense Department reprogramming request that would have allowed the Army to
shift $10 million toward replacing its Vietnam-era M113 with a new Armored
Multi-Purpose Vehicle, according to officials.
The Army is poised to change how it blast tests combat vehicles to better assess the damage that could be caused by the types of roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices that have been gutting vehicles and killing soldiers since the start of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Army is asking Congress to approve a $45 million funding shift that would allow the service to carry out several new-start Combat Vehicle Prototype Sensitivity Studies to better inform the acquisition process for the Ground Combat Vehicle, according to a recent Defense Department reprogramming request.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency will be working closely with the Army and Marine Corps to ensure its Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle has suitable force protection capabilities -- an effort that follows skeptical language about the project in a recent report from the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Defense Department is asking Congress to shift $6 billion in fiscal year 2011 to support higher priorities and unfunded requirements, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program's cost increases and new initiatives for communications, vehicles and aircraft.
The Defense Department is weeding through more than 130
audits related to the termination of the Army's Future Combat Systems program,
which still lends its name to many large research and development accounts in
the fiscal year 2012 budget, according to officials.
A July 21 defense acquisition board review has been set for
the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle program, marking the fourth time the meeting
has been rescheduled since the issuance of a new request for proposals last
year, according to sources.
(Editor's Note: This story was updated on July 5 to incorporate information about the AMPV program from an Army spokesman as well as a government source familiar with the effort.)
The Army is preparing next month to kick off a big-ticket Pentagon acquisition effort -- a new armored vehicle program to outfit its heavy brigades with a replacement for the Vietnam-era-designed M113 vehicle, setting up a competition to build as many as 5,000 Armored Multipurpose Vehicles (AMPV).
Senate authorizers have proposed cutting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's $3 billion budget request by $150 million, griping the agency has been focused on overly ambitious initiatives and has failed to fully flesh out programs.
The effort to advance the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle
program has hit a new speed bump, with the service attempting to justify the
urgency of its seven-year development schedule to lawmakers who are wondering
what the rush is all about in light of the drawdown from Afghanistan, according
to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Despite the Army's wishes, the Senate Armed Services
Committee increased funding to the Abrams tank program by $322 million in its
mark of the fiscal year 2012 defense spending bill last week, according to Sen.
Carl Levin (D-MI), the chairman of the committee.