The U.S. Army recently awarded AM General LLC a contract worth up to $800 million to build thousands of Humvee ambulances to supplement the service's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle fleet, according to the Indiana-based company.
Both the Army and the Marine Corps plan to replace a large portion of the Defense Department's outdated Humvee fleet with the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a joint program that could be worth up to $30 billion if they end up buying close to 60,000 of the new tactical vehicles.
The Pentagon announced Sept. 14 that the contract was worth $562.5 million. But the contract to build 2,800 new M997A3 Humvee ambulances could be worth $800 million if the Army decides to commit to two optional years on top of the three-year base contract, Deborah Reyes, a spokesman for AM General, told Military.com on Monday.
Both services will continue to use the Humvee, especially the ambulance variant since there is no ambulance version of the JLTV, program officials say.
The new M997A3 is based on AM General's M1152 up-armored Humvee chassis and body, Reyes said. The M1152 is enhanced with "integrated armor protection," AM General's website states.
"AM General continues to support the warfighter's needs by delivering high-quality M997A3 ambulances based off our modernized, proven, rugged, all-terrain HMMWV's," Chris Vanslager, AM General executive vice president for U.S. Defense, said in a news release. "We understand the importance of being able to reliably and safely transport the wounded within operational areas on the battlefield to medical aid stations and are proud that the M997A3 can fulfill this critical mission."
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
