AUSA 2011: Oshkosh takes wraps off L-ATV

October 10, 2011 Darren Lake, SHEPARD GROUP

Washington, DC - Oshkosh Defense is using this year's AUSA exposition to give the US Army a taste of its next-generation light combat, all-terrain vehicle, the L-ATV.

The company is one of those that is pursuing both the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) programme and the potential Humvee Recapitalisation project.

'We see L-ATV not just as the solution for JLTV but for any light tactical vehicle requirement,' Ken Juergens, vice president and general manager of Joint Programs, told Shephard.

The company says the vehicle incorporates field-proven technologies, advanced armour solutions and expeditionary levels of mobility to redefine safety and performance standards for military forces. It has a similar dashboard to other Oshkosh vehicles, which Jurgens said would facilitate training.

Oshkosh has produced six prototypes to date and has completed some 20,000 miles of mission profile testing.

The L-ATV comes equipped with Oshkosh's TAK-4i suspension system, which uses proprietary technology to deliver 20 inches of independent wheel travel and 25 percent more wheel travel than any vehicle currently in the US military's fleet.

The vehicle's armoured capsule is scalable and can accept multiple armour configurations to protect against IEDs and other prevalent battlefield threats. The company believes it is optimised for protection, weight and mobility, and its modular and flexible design allows the vehicle to accept a greater range of upgrades and continuous enhancements.

The vehicle uses a commercially based powertrain, but Jurgens said that the company had also looked at the feasibility of incorporating a hybrid diesel-electric drive although this was not currently a JLTV requirement. Changing the power train would have the additional benefit of increasing the internal volume of the vehicle.

Jurgens said that the company had not seen any surprises in the draft JLTV request for proposals (RfP) that was released recently. He added that the $250,000 price point was achievable and allowed the company to look at what trade-offs could be made. 'We meet all the JLTV requirements and exceed most of them,' he added.

However, he continued that there were some elements in the draft RfP that Oshkosh had been discussing with the army. 'We think some of the scoring criteria needs to be changed,' Juergens explained. He also said that value could be added to the submissions by requesting a test article and not just a paper proposal. 'The vehicle never lies. that's something the US Army learnt from the M-ATV programme,' he concluded.

‘We designed the L-ATV to address the rapidly evolving threats and provide troops with greater ability to navigate through extreme driving conditions,’ and stressed: ‘Battlefields have changed -- threats are more dangerous, operating environments are more rugged and fuel efficiency is more important than ever.

‘The state-of-the-art L-ATV is designed to meet these challenges, today and well into the future, just as our M-ATV continues to meet evolving battlefield threats without comprising its payload and off-road mission profile,’ Juergens concluded.