Logistic Vehicle Modernization Project - Replacing everything from LUVW to SHLVW

[OldSolduer]

Why is bid evaluation (an administrative task) being done in Nevada?
Do you mean that vehicle testing will occur in Nevada?

IIRC the cold weather testing for the Loud Squeaky Vehicle Wheeled was done in Nevada or somewhere like that.

 

[MilEME09]

Stalling on military trucks costly, feds warned; Opposition calls it 'pathetic'

OTTAWA - The longer it takes the federal government to buy 1,500 new replacement trucks for the military, the fewer vehicles it will be able to afford, the Department of National Defence warned in 2012.

The unusually frank assessment of the medium support vehicle program, cancelled twice since 2006, came in a memo to former deputy defence minister Robert Fonberg just weeks after the Department of Public Works pulled the plug for the second time.

It was part of a series of internal documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, that show the decision to halt the program was the direct result of budget cuts at National Defence.

Fonberg, who has since moved on to another position in the government, was told by officials that the $800 million set aside by the Conservatives for that portion of the program was being eroded by inflation at a rate of two per cent a year.

"The potential impact of schedule delays ... is that for every year of delay, it is estimated that (censored) fewer vehicles can be procured," said a briefing dated Nov. 27, 2012.

It was also costing the department $10.5 million per year to keep the project office open, the briefing noted.

The program was quietly restarted last year — bids closed just last week — but a contract award is not expected until the summer of 2015, just weeks before the next federal election — a delay that could chew as much as $48 million of buying power out of the program.

New Democrat defence critic Jack Harris said the timing of a relatively straightforward purchase of trucks has been hijacked by politics.

"It's pathetic," said Harris. "What else can you say? It's pathetic."

The briefing and a series of other documents paint a picture of how National Defence had painted into a corner over the program. Budget cuts from 2010 were trickling down to front-line programs and planners were being left in the lurch.

Defence officials were advised midway through 2012, just as final bids were about to be submitted by contractors, that "as a result of 'expenditure review measures' there could be a reduction in the current financial cap" allocated to the truck program, a series of Public Works emails shows.

Officials scrambled during the first weeks of July 2012 to salvage the truck plan, which was described as being an "urgent priority" when it was first announced because of safety concerns with the existing 1980s-vintage fleet.

Harris said the political imperative of balancing the budget clearly took priority over safety hazards.

"The government wanted to put themselves in a position of having to declare a surplus in time for an election, where they can announce tax breaks," he said.

The army has started parking some of the vehicles and using them for spare parts in hopes of saving money.

 

[PuckChaser]

It was also costing the department $10.5 million per year to keep the project office open, the briefing noted.

Why defense procurement is broken in one sentence.

 

[suffolkowner]

Yep! Multiply that by every open project plus the added complexity multiply that by the average time to procure. Money wasted.

 

[MilEME09]

So the only vehicle I can confirm in the running is the Oshkosh MSVS SMP, they released a statement back on the 8th

Oshkosh Defense Canada Delivers MSVS SMP Bid with Next-Generation Capabilities for Canadian Armed Forces

OTTAWA, Ontario (Jan. 8, 2014) — The Canadian Government is taking important steps in modernizing its logistics vehicle fleet by advancing the Standard Military Pattern (SMP) component of the Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) project. Oshkosh Defense Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK), responded to the Government of Canada’s MSVS SMP Request for Proposal (RFP), offering a high performance, low risk solution to meet the Canadian Department of National Defence’s (DND) mission requirements and protect Canadian Soldiers for decades to come.

“Working closely with our Canadian industry partners and a growing network of Canadian suppliers, our Oshkosh MSVS SMP offering provides superior vehicle performance, sustainment across six continents, and ultimately, the best overall value for Canada,” said John Urias, Oshkosh Corporation executive vice president and president of Oshkosh Defense. “The Oshkosh MSVS SMP family of vehicles is the next generation of the world’s most trusted, battle-proven military platform in the field today. We are proud to present the Government of Canada with our MSVS SMP bid that meets or exceeds all project requirements, and most importantly, provides Canadian Soldiers with the modern logistics vehicles they need to perform their missions.”

The Best Value for Canada

Oshkosh, in collaboration with its Canadian team members and suppliers, will return 100 percent or more of the MSVS SMP contract value to the Canadian economy. Oshkosh’s strategic team members for the project include DEW Engineering and Development, General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada, and Link Suspensions of Canada – Raydan Division.

“Our MSVS SMP team aligns core Oshkosh design, production and sustainment strengths with Canada’s finest technology, manufacturing and services capabilities,” said John Lazar, senior director of Global Strategic Initiatives for Oshkosh Defense. “We are committed to supporting MSVS SMP and future Canadian vehicle modernization programs by working with companies across Canada and creating new economic value in the process.”

Exceptional Performance, Without the Risk

Oshkosh designed, extensively tested and built its MSVS SMP solution to bring the latest ground vehicle technologies to the Canadian Armed Forces. The Oshkosh MSVS SMP vehicles and trailers are built to serve a full range of logistics missions from disaster recovery at home to major conflicts abroad. Key vehicle subsystems, including a high-performance drive train, advanced suspension and braking systems, and a state-of-the-art armour protection system, allow the Oshkosh MSVS SMP to achieve a 70 percent off-road mission profile and a 98 percent mission reliability rate – both of which will enable Canada’s ground forces to more safely operate in a vast array of threat levels, climates and terrains.

The Oshkosh MSVS SMP builds upon decades of in-theatre experience around the globe and more than one billion real-world operational kilometres accumulated on the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) platform. The acclaimed HEMTT platform is a purpose-built military vehicle that has been chosen by the United States Department of Defense and more than 20 allies worldwide – consistently outperforming commercial vehicle derivatives in competitive scenarios.

Canada’s MSVS SMP RFP also includes five years of In-Service Support (ISS). With Canadian troops more frequently mobilized around the world for defence and humanitarian missions, complete life cycle sustainment is increasingly important to ensure mission readiness.

The Oshkosh team’s ISS offering leverages decades of performance based contracting and major repair/overhaul programs experience to minimize MSVS SMP life cycle costs while maximizing reliability and readiness rates. “Our ISS plan is based on a robust global supply chain and a mature logistics system that spans six continents,” added Lazar. “By applying our logistics supportability analysis methodology to manage fleet health, Oshkosh has helped reduced military vehicle fleet life cycle costs as much as 70 percent.”

http://en.oshkoshdefense.ca/vehicles/msvs-smp/

 

[dapaterson]

Latest Canadian Defence Review has an overview of the five(?) likely competitors: Oshkosh, Navistar, Mercedes Benz, Volvo and another I forget.  Unfortunately, I don't have the magazine at home, and can't access their website edition: http://www.canadiandefencereview.com/

 

[dapaterson]

According to CDR, the contenders will be:

• Navistar - proposing the ATX-8 (Tatra 8x8)
• Mack Defense - (part of Volvo) Renault Trucks Kerax as the base for their 8x8 submission
• Mercedes Benz - 6x6 Zetros
• Oshkosh - HEMTT A4 8x8
• Rheinmetall - Migh Mobility Series HX 77 8x8

 

[MilEME09]

According to CDR, the contenders will be:

• Navistar - proposing the ATX-8 (Tatra 8x8)
• Mack Defense - (part of Volvo) Renault Trucks Kerax as the base for their 8x8 submission
• Mercedes Benz - 6x6 Zetros
• Oshkosh - HEMTT A4 8x8
• Rheinmetall - Migh Mobility Series HX 77 8x8

months of testing, and yet no selection till next fall and deliveries in 2017..............

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Since these are already tried and trusted SMP platforms (I think) so minor modifications to make them "Canadianized" should be quick and easy IMHO...

 

[Rifleman62]

Since these are already tried and trusted SMP platforms (I think) so minor modifications to make them "Canadianized" should be quick and easy IMHO...

Visited the states of Washington or Colorado recently did you?

 

[Journeyman]

And you just know that the unthinking, finger-pointing classes are going to see the Zetros and proclaim, "the government is neglecting the troops, yet they buy Mercedes Benz!"

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Oshkosh are good proven trucks and at least we'd have some interoperability with out nearest ally.

 

[MilEME09]

Dear DND,

Instead of putting funds towards replacing kit that works such as mukluks, gloves, ruck sacks, tac vests, and small packs (yes thats right my CSM told us they are replacing our small packs, rucks(to remove the 84 pattern?) and tac vests), wet weather boots, and the list goes on. Instead put that money into getting us a ML replacement sooner then two days after never, replace the LS, and the HL, we need new wreakers, ours breaks the moment it comes back from repairs.

Signed

your troops

 

[jlv031]

Dear DND,

Instead of putting funds towards replacing kit that works such as mukluks, gloves, ruck sacks, tac vests, and small packs (yes thats right my CSM told us they are replacing our small packs, rucks(to remove the 84 pattern?) and tac vests), wet weather boots, and the list goes on. Instead put that money into getting us a ML replacement sooner then two days after never, replace the LS, and the HL, we need new wreakers, ours breaks the moment it comes back from repairs.

Signed

your troops

And a wrecker that can actually recover all the equipment we are responsible to fix/tow!!  It is ridiculous to go on a recovery call 1 hour away, realise we need to tow it back and have to call a civy wrecker...

 

[OldSolduer]

Since these are already tried and trusted SMP platforms (I think) so minor modifications to make them "Canadianized" should be quick and easy IMHO...

When you say "Canadianize" do you mean modifying so much it doesn't not resemble the original test vehicle and doesn't perform as well as intended?

Or do you mean putting a decent cab heater and a block heater in?  >

 

[PuckChaser]

Dear DND,

Instead of putting funds towards replacing kit that works such as mukluks, gloves, ruck sacks, tac vests, and small packs (yes thats right my CSM told us they are replacing our small packs, rucks(to remove the 84 pattern?) and tac vests), wet weather boots, and the list goes on. Instead put that money into getting us a ML replacement sooner then two days after never, replace the LS, and the HL, we need new wreakers, ours breaks the moment it comes back from repairs.

Signed

your troops

Tacvest doesn't work.

 

[MilEME09]

Tacvest doesn't work.

I meant worked as in the sense that its not falling apart, and actually holds what you put in

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Dear DND,

Instead of putting funds towards replacing kit that works such as mukluks, gloves, ruck sacks, tac vests, and small packs (yes thats right my CSM told us they are replacing our small packs, rucks(to remove the 84 pattern?) and tac vests), wet weather boots, and the list goes on. Instead put that money into getting us a ML replacement sooner then two days after never, replace the LS, and the HL, we need new wreakers, ours breaks the moment it comes back from repairs.

Signed

your troops

Dear Troops,

Careful what you ask for.  You complained loud and long about things like boots, tacvests, mukluks etc, and so we spent all of our energy trying to satisfy your needs and desires.  Sadly, we had no capacity left to focus on important things like trucks.

Signed,

DND

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The concepts of:

Buying stuff for the military is not new
What is a truck is not new, even if the tech evolves
The tasks of a truck has not fundamental changed since WWII
Sources of military trucks are plentiful
Costs of running trucks is known to us
The number of trucks we need is fairly well known

So I'm unclear how they can muck this up so badly.

 

[PuckChaser]

I meant worked as in the sense that its not falling apart, and actually holds what you put in

Ask C6/C9 gunner or Leo 2 crewman if the tacvest holds what they need to put in it.