At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Airland Subcommittee, led by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), Senior Army officials gave testimony about modernization activities.
"When do you think we can expect to see a comprehensive Humvee modernization plan with an associated program of record?" asked Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN), inquiring about long-term efforts with regards to the 2019 fiscal year.
In August 2015, the service awarded a contract worth $6.7 billion for the first 17,000 JLTV production models to be built by Oshkosh Corp., beating a team from Britain’s BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, along with the private AM General. To the replace the Humvees, the Army is expected to buy more than 49,000 JLTVs.
After winning the contract, Oshkosh Corp. CEO Charles Szews said the JLTV “is by far the most advanced vehicle that we have ever built, and it's the most advanced tactical wheeled vehicle the world has ever seen. It brings unprecedented speed, mobility and agility to the fight in a highly protective, reliable platform,” according to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
Army G-8 deputy chief of staff for financial management Lt. General John Murray told lawmakers that officials will have to make a decision about the Cold War-era fleet in 2018, saying, "We are going to have to make a decision… either we are going to have to buy more JLTVs to replace Humvees or we are going to have to start recapping the Humvee fleet we have," according to DoDBuzz.
Murray explained that the average age of the Humvee fleet is 9.5 years, and that there’s a 50-50 mix between them and JLTV requirement. He said, "we try to maintain less than 15 years, so we are in good shape for another couple of years in terms of the age of the Humvee fleet."
The Marine Corps is planning to buy 5,500 of the vehicles and the Army plans to purchase 49,100. The Oshkosh contract is projected to total around $30 billion. This would replace about one third of the Humvees.
