U.S. Caps Humvee-Upgrade Cost at $180K

Above, the M1151 Enhanced Armament Carrier, one of the Humvee models. (U.S. Army)

29 Sep 2011 By MICHAEL HOFFMAN DefenseNews

The U.S. Army intends to pay no more than $180,000 to upgrade each Humvee in its recapitalization program, according to the complete version of the draft request for proposals, released Sept. 29.

Army and Marine Corps officials have said it makes sense to upgrade a portion of the Humvee fleet only if it remains significantly cheaper than buying Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, which the services expect to cost about $366,000 apiece.

"We don't want to be in a position where we are spending more to upgrade a Humvee than we would to replace that vehicle with an even more capable vehicle that we built from the ground up," said Col. David Bassett, Army program manager for Tactical Vehicles. "If it costs too much, it doesn't make strategic sense. You're better off just replacing it."

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently recommended the Defense Department kill the JLTV, saying its jobs could be handled by other vehicles, including upgraded Humvees.

Army and Marine Corps officials have since pushed back in public comments against that recommendation.

Christopher Yunker, Mobility Branch section head at Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said if an upgraded Humvee cost any more than 60 percent of what a JLTV would cost, the Marine Corps would consider the Humvee recapitalization a bad investment.

"What we're seeing is to get the capability you're looking for in the JLTV, your most effective move for the taxpayer is to go ahead and buy a new vehicle that will give you a 20-year service life as opposed to recapping an old vehicle that will give you seven or eight years," Yunker said.

The Army had said they expected each Humvee to cost about $160,000 to $180,000 to upgrade. An official with one defense team expected to submit a bid for the contract said he wasn't surprised the service set the ceiling on the high end of the range.

Army leaders plan to upgrade 60,000 to 100,000 Humvees by 2016, extending the life of the vehicle to 2030. The Marine Corps similarly plans to upgrade more than 3,400 of its Humvees. The Army specified the defense teams upgrade the M1151 Armaments Carrier Humvee variant although data will also be collected on the M1152 Shelter Carrier variant during certain phases of the competition.

Four major competitors have lined up for the recapitalization program, including a team of Textron Systems and Granite Tactical Vehicles, and industry teams led by AM General, BAE Systems and Oshkosh. AM General has built the Humvee since the Army first started fielding it in the 1980s.

Defense teams will compete to design upgrades to provide Humvee passengers more protection while maintaining the truck's speed and agility. Army officials listed crew survivability in the draft RfP as the most important evaluation factor in the competition.

The Army announced in the draft RfP it will split the competition into two phases - the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) phase and the production phase.

Service officials will select three defense teams from the RDT&E phase who will then compete in the production phase where "the estimated total production quantity is 5,750 vehicles at a rate of 3-4 vehicles per day," according to the draft RfP's executive summary. The Army will pick a single contractor for production at the beginning of 2013.

Army acquisition leaders will host an industry day Oct. 7. The RDT&E phase RfP will be released Nov. 10, 2012, with proposals due for that phase Jan. 13, 2012. Up to three RDT&E contracts will be awarded May 30, 2012.

Earlier this month, the Army released the first part of the Humvee recap's draft RfP but left out sections "L" and "M" - the Instructions, Conditions and Notices to Offerors and Evaluation Factors for Award - the two most important parts of a draft RfP for contractors.