General Tactical Vehicles (GTV) Finishing JLTV Subcomponent Testing
October 7, 2009
DefenseNews.com
by Kris OsbornGTV is completing subcomponent testing on its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) offering before handing the vehicles over to the Army-led program next May, company officials said. Engineers from GTV - a joint venture between incumbent Humvee-maker AM General and General Dynamics Land Systems - are testing the drive train and semi-active suspension on the vehicle.
"We have a demonstrator vehicle we have run some miles on. More importantly, we are focused on testing at a subsystem level. The ECV II has over 100,000 miles of tests on the suspension system and components in the drive line. We have taken lessons learned from that and run up test miles," said Don Howe, senior director of the GTV program. "We have blast-tested the structure to make sure it meets the requirements. We have an optimized V-hull and we have tested our ceramic composite armor."
The idea is to build a JLTV that can work alongside an improved Humvee. "The JLTV will be in the field as the same time as the Humvee so we see the two working together," said AM General CEO Paul Kern. "We are focused on producing a vehicle that can meet the survivability and transportability issues without giving up the cross-country mobility that is inherent to the vehicle."
General Tactical Vehicles is a joint venture between AM General and General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), formed to provide the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps a low-risk, affordable, technically advanced and economically sustainable solution to their Joint Light Tactical Vehicle requirements.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 92,300 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about General Dynamics is available online at www.generaldynamics.com.
Headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, AM General operates multi-purpose military and civilian manufacturing facilities in Mishawaka, Indiana, and an Engineering and Product Development Center in Livonia, Michigan. AM General is the manufacturer of the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, pronounced HUMVEE) for U.S. and overseas military services. The company also provides spare parts, field service and training support for all its products, and its Engineering and Product Development Center provides integrated logistics support and systems technical support for a variety of military systems in addition to the HMMWV. The company has more than 3,000 employees, of whom 2,300 work in the South Bend/Mishawaka area.
General Tactical Vehicles is a joint venture of General Dynamics Land Systems & AM General.
Copyright •À¸ 2007 General Tactical Vehicles
All Rights Reserved