AM General awarded $230M contract for armored truck project
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South Bend-based AM General, the maker of the HUMVEE, was awarded an initial $230 million contract this week from the Department of Defense to manufacture Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV), a heavily armored truck used by the U.S. Army. However, the deal could be worth $8.6 billion over the next decade for more than 20,000 JLTVs and approximately 10,000 trailers.
Production of the armored vehicle would occur at the company’s Mishawaka plant, which has been producing the military HUMVEE for decades.
“We are humbled and honored to receive this contract and continue our strong partnership with the U.S. Armed Forces. The effort that we put into our winning proposal is testament to our commitment to serve those who serve to protect us,” said Jim Cannon, AM General President and CEO. “It was with the warfighters in mind that we set out to not only demonstrate our world-class manufacturing capabilities, but also to integrate innovative solutions into the JLTV so they receive the best product for their mission.”
It is a five-year contract with a five-year option to manufacture the battlefield vehicles in St. Joseph County.
DefenseNews.com reports this contract could be considered an upset to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense, a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corp. (NYSE: OSK). In 2015, the Army awarded a nearly $7 billion contract to Oshkosh to begin manufacturing JLTVs.
Oshkosh stocks were down nearly 11% in value at the close Friday as traders responded to the contract loss.
These new AM General produced JLTVs will start rolling on the assembly line within 17 months after the contract is finalized.
“AM General has been and will continue to be a national leader in defense, and we are overly proud to have them call Indiana home,” said Gov. Holcomb. “Our long history of being the number one ranked state, per capita, in America in manufacturing will help ensure this contract not only grows our supply chain and defense industry base, but also highlights our deep patriotic commitment to innovation and leadership in this space.”
Inside INdiana Business has reached out to AM General to determine how this new contract could impact its production of HUMVEES. We’ll update this story as more details are released.