The army is accepting prototypes from Lockheed Martin for new military vehicles which are capable of on and off road mobility. These new vehicles will function to provide protection and quick transportation for troops in Iraq.
Lockheed Martin developed an innovative proposal for new JLTV’s. JLTV stands for Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. These vehicles will be used by both the army and the Marine corps.
According to Lockheed Martin, these new vehicles will rely on intelligence related protection in their JLTV’s rather that body armor alone. The Vice President of Lockheed Martin said, “Our holistic approach to JLTV survivability sees armor as a last resort. Long before a threat hits a vehicle, our JLTV will rely on net-centric situational awareness to avoid and communicate threats.”
This new technology on the JLTV will allow greater mobility for our troops and in turn will provide increased protection. In the event that battle cannot be avoided by the state of the art equipment in the JLTV, soldiers are protected by a more functional armor composition than previous models boasted.
The army has not yet awarded the contract to Lockheed Martin. The Army and Marine Corps coalition for JLTV are expected to order 50,000 units of their new JLTV by 2010. However the group is still awaiting proposals from two other companies besides Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin has already developed two prototypes of their vehicles with several thousand miles in test runs. The other two companies are expected to have prototypes built for evaluation as well.
The contract is still up for grabs but one thing is for sure – these new vehicles will help to protect our soldiers while providing increased success and transportation abilities for our troops.
