An infantry brigade combat team of the 10th Mountain Division will be the first unit to get the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs, around January 2019 once full-rate production kicks in, said Col. Shane Fullmer.
Fullmer, the joint program manager for the JLTV program, spoke at a JLTV demonstration and media roundtable here on June 14.
The brigade will receive 500 JLTVs on a one-for-one replacement of the unit’s current fleet of Humvees, he said.
Officials said that a total of about 100 JLTVs are being provided this year by Oshkosh Defense, the maker of the vehicle, at a low-rate initial production of about 10 per month to the Army and Marine Corps for testing.
The full suite of testing includes command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; reliability qualification; and live-fire, according to a chart provided at the media roundtable.
The Army plans to purchase at least 50,000 JLTVs and the Marine Corps so far plans to buy about 5,500 for a total cost to both services of about $24 billion, with production extending over the course of 20 years, according to Army officials.
Andrew Rogers, program manager, Light Tactical Vehicles at PEO Land Systems Marine Corps, said the Marine Corps is re-evaluating its order and may order upwards of 10,000. The first JLTVs for the Marine Corps, he said, will go to a battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in late 2019.