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19 Sep 12. Navistar Defense, LLC received a delivery order for up to $282m to provide more than 2,300 survivability upgrade retrofit kits for International® MaxxPro® Dash Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. The order from the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command will upgrade MaxxPro Dash vehicles in theater with additional protection in response to evolving threats in Afghanistan. The order also includes parts and service.
“Anticipating the needs of our Armed Forces continues to be a top priority for Navistar and we are proud to offer the vehicle of choice to help them complete their missions safely,” said Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “Threats continue to change and it is our responsibility to stay out ahead of those threats with the best technology available.”
The MaxxPro family of vehicles was originally designed to accommodate rapid vehicle enhancements as threats evolved in theater. Since 2007, the company has provided enhancements to both survivability and mobility through its work on its rolling chassis body swap, DXM™ independent suspension retrofit kits, armor kits and more.
“We also understand the balance of keeping our service men and women well equipped at a reasonable cost to taxpayers,” said Massicotte. “We will keep offering integrated solutions as well as alternatives to buying new vehicles so that we can keep our Armed Forces modern and ready for future operations.”
Navistar has delivered nearly 9,000 MaxxPro units in nine major variants to the United States and its allies. This order follows the company’s MaxxPro rolling chassis body swap, which upgrades more than 2,700 MaxxPro vehicles with a DXM™ independent suspension, MaxxForce® 9.3 engine, 570 amp alternator and driveline. Work for the survivability upgrade will be done in Afghanistan beginning in December 2012. The order is scheduled to be completed by July 2013.
23 Sep 12. QinetiQ North America of McLean, Va., has been awarded a contract for a pilot program involving a new maintenance methodology in support of the U.S. Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Life Cycle Management Command in Warren, Mich. The three-year contract is estimated to be worth $17m. The system, known as Condition-Based Maintenance Plus, will apply a range of analytical tools and logistics systems to more accurately detect and predict maintenance needs for some 2,000 tactical wheeled vehicles. These will be mostly noncombatant vehicles. The goal is to give operators a more real-world view of the needs of their machines.
“They will be able to do maintenance based on the condition of the components, as opposed to what the operating manual says,” said David Shrum, executive vice present and general manager of QinetiQ North America’s Engineering and Life Cycle Management business unit.
The point of the program is to see whether sophisticated sensors can help operators understand potential problems before they occur. Reams of detailed data could help identify trends and suggest corrective actions, while predicting maintenance needs. These analytics could help to bridge the gap between a vehicle’s operating manual and the actual usage experience in the field. These vehicles “are experiencing a much higher [operations] tempo under harsher conditions than perhaps they were designed for,” Shrum said. Parts are wearing out faster than predicted. As a result, scheduled maintenance actions may be coming in too late or too infrequently. That means trucks may underperform or may even wear out their usefulness faster than planned. (Source: Defense News)
25 Sep 12. Oshkosh Unveils New Light Vehicle for Unconventional, Recon Missions. Expanding its portfolio of light military vehicles, Oshkosh Defense is unveiled its new Special Purpose All-Terrain Vehicle (S