The US military has decided it’s time to shuffle the Humvee out of the combat duty deck over time. That means that those serving in the US Army and Marines can expect to see the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), built by Oshkosh Defense, as a replacement. The GM tie-in here? The JLTV will be Duramax V8 diesel-powered. Oshkosh won the contract over Humvee manufacturer AM General, British contractor BAE Systems, and F-35 builder Lockheed Martin.
You should recognize the Duramax name from GM’s top trucks: the Chevrolet Silverado Heavy Duty and GMC Sierra Heavy Duty.
The JLTV defense contract could potentially mean over 55,000 6.6L Duramax diesels being built by GM and Isuzu for the new armored vehicle, with 49,100 vehicles for the Army and 5,500 for the Marine Corps. This is relatively not much when you compare it the total number of diesel V8s that GM has already produced: 1.5 million units and counting. But the stout motor built jointly by Isuzu and GM is tried and true. It’s also earned the General a spot in the Oshkosh contract that could be worth over $30 billion.
Officials claim that the base price for each unit is just under $400,000, but the target cost for a base vehicle was $250,000. The JLTV, a relative of the MRAP, is about two-thirds of the weight of a Humvee, with a larger payload and supposedly greater reliability, as well.
Yes, government contracts (read: using taxpayer dollars) are insanely priced.
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