A major U.S. Army vehicle contract is nearly two years behind schedule, and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin says the military branch ignored repeated warnings about the manufacturer.
In early 2023, under the Biden administration, the Army awarded an $8.6 billion contract to AM General to build up to 20,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) over a five-year period. The decision pulled the manufacturing job away from Oshkosh Defense, a company that had successfully built the vehicles since 2016. At the time, Baldwin expressed concerns that AM General, which had recently been acquired by a private equity firm, lacked the experience, workforce, and financial stability to handle the massive project.
Those warnings appear to be playing out. AM General has yet to deliver a single production-standard JLTV A2 to the Department of Defense. This lack of delivery comes even after the government has obligated nearly $2 billion to the company.
“Unfortunately, over the last three years, my concerns about AM General’s ability to meet the JLTV contract have borne out,” Baldwin wrote in a recent letter to Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll. “In response to my letters in 2023 and 2024, the Army provided assurances that it would provide strict oversight of AM General’s production and potential risks of disruption to the program. Despite those assurances, AM General continued to flounder and the delivery of the JLTVs has continued to be delayed.”
Baldwin noted that the company is almost two years late and called the situation “unacceptable performance for one of DoD’s largest vehicle contracts.”
The manufacturing delays are now creating problems for other military branches. While the Army plans to stop buying JLTVs by 2027 to focus on a different infantry vehicle, the Marine Corps still relies heavily on them. The Marines requested $245 million for the JLTV program in the upcoming budget, but they are currently dealing with readiness gaps because the vehicles haven’t arrived.
Because the Army manages the JLTV contract for the entire military, Baldwin is pushing Secretary Driscoll to let the Marine Corps look for other options to get the vehicles they need. Oshkosh Defense has stated it could produce about 1,200 JLTVs a year once ramped up, but the company warns it will have to shut down its production line entirely if it doesn’t receive new orders soon.
Baldwin stressed the importance of keeping the military properly equipped regardless of the Army’s shifting priorities.
“It is vital that the Marine Corps and other Services have the vehicles they need to be able to fight in future wars,” Baldwin said. “Unfortunately, the Army’s risky financial decision in awarding the follow-on JLTV contract to AM General is imperiling the readiness of the Marine Corps.”
In her letter, Baldwin asked the Army to share its plan for fixing the vehicle shortfalls within 30 days. She also requested that the Army give the Marine Corps full access to the technical data needed to find a new supplier.
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