AM General BRV-O on track for government testing delivery

AM General has reported that its Blast Resistant Vehicle - Off road (BRV-O) is on track to enter government testing in the coming months. The vehicle is being developed under an Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase contract as part of the US military's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) programme.

AM General was selected along with Lockheed Martin and Oshkosh Corporation-led teams for the EMD phase of the competition in August 2012. The JLTV programme aims to replace many of the US military’s aged HMMWVs with a lightweight vehicle offering greater protection, mobility and transportability.

Under its EMD contract, AM General will deliver 22 BRV-Os in August for testing, with variants including a 4-seat Combat Tactical Vehicle that supports three different mission package configurations; and a 2-seat variant Combat Support Vehicle that supports a utility mission package configuration for different mission roles across the full spectrum of military operations.

The vehicles are under development at the company’s Light Tactical Vehicle Assembly Line (LTVAL). As the BRV-O JLTVs leave the LTVAL at the Military Assembly Plant, they will receive additional mission packages - some provided by AM General and others as Government Furnished Equipment - to convert each base vehicle into a specific mission package configuration, such as the Heavy Guns Carrier. Then each vehicle will undergo AM General break-in and shake-down testing before delivery to the military.

Chris Vanslager, vice president of business development and program management, AM General, said: ‘We are setting the pace on integrating components, meeting timelines and other requirements and working closely with our military customer representatives daily.

‘Light tactical vehicles are in our DNA, and it shows in the focus, excitement and pride all along the assembly line. Low risk, high quality and affordability is what our customer demands and we at AM General have more than five decades of experience and a more than 1.5 million light tactical vehicle heritage to back it up.’

According to the company, BRV-O features a crew capsule of modular armour design currently undergoing government blast testing. The BRV-O design can be readily adapted to future changes in US military missions, enemy threats and new protection technologies as they emerge.  The vehicle also features AM General's lightweight, fuel efficient and high performance engine and transmission powertrain; a self-levelling suspension system; and a C4ISR backbone with open-standard networked architecture and clustered super-computing power.