Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) marked the handoff of the 1,000th MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) to the U.S. Armed Forces at a ceremony with military leadership at the company’s facilities in Oshkosh, Wis.
Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command, and Lt. Col. Coll Haddon, M-ATV product manager for the MRAP Joint Program Office, were the keynote speakers at the event. Having exceeded the government’s delivery schedule for five consecutive months, Oshkosh is ramping up production to 1,000 vehicles per month in December and continuing at that level through April 2010.
“We understood the urgency of the M-ATV program to save American lives and leaned forward in advance of receiving the contract to build vehicles and prepare our operations for this high-quantity production,” said Robert G. Bohn, Oshkosh Corporation chairman and chief executive officer. “Our workforce has embraced this important mission and made countless personal sacrifices to produce these vehicles quickly to protect those that are sacrificing for our safety. They will continue to deliver these life-saving vehicles along with replacement parts and field support, as long as necessary.”
Since being awarded the production contract on June 30, 2009, Oshkosh has received four additional awards from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) to supply a total of 6,219 M-ATVs. Oshkosh also has received orders for spare kits and to send its factory-trained field service representatives (FSR) to Afghanistan to provide training and maintenance support for the vehicles. The aggregate amount of the five awards is valued at $3.2 billion.
The M-ATV is the U.S. military’s newest MRAP model, combining the protection levels of legacy MRAPs with improved mobility and durability to handle Afghanistan’s mountainous cross-country terrain and unimproved roads. The vehicle uses the Oshkosh-patented TAK-4 independent suspension system, which has undergone more than 500,000 miles of government testing, to achieve a 70-percent off-road profile capability and 16 inches of independent wheel travel. The system also is used on the Marine Corps’ Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) and Logistics Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR), as well as the Army’s Palletized Load System (PLS A1).