Lockheed Martin has submitted a proposal for a substantially lighter and more affordable Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) for the next phase of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps competition.

The Lockheed Martin team optimized its Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) design for production while maintaining the proven force protection, mobility, transportability and reliability of the earlier Technology Demonstration (TD) model.

"Our improvements removed hundreds of pounds of weight from our TD design, which was already proven in helicopter lift tests," said Scott Greene, vice president of ground vehicles at Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business.

"With more than 160,000 combined testing miles behind us, we've demonstrated our JLTV can reliably meet protection standards of many existing mine-resistant vehicles in combat today. This vehicle is ready to meet our customers' needs with lower-cost materials at full-rate production."

Throughout 2010 and 2011, the team took lessons learned from JLTV's extensive testing and applied them to an evolved design. The team accomplished this through digital engineering analysis, virtual design builds, component tests and physical stress testing.

"Our EMD design lowers the cost of each vehicle, and not just through economies of scale," said Kathryn Hasse, Lockheed Martin's JLTV program director.

"We have incorporated more affordable materials and reduced exotic metals such as titanium. This was accomplished while maintaining the significant blast protection and vehicle capability already demonstrated."

BAE Systems, a Lockheed Martin JLTV team member, helped develop the production process verified by the virtual design build. The team benefits from BAE Systems' expertise in advanced armor solutions and production facilities for high volume assembly.

Formed in 2005, the core Lockheed Martin-led JLTV team includes the tactical wheeled vehicles team at BAE Systems in Sealy, Texas, complemented by numerous Tier 1 automotive suppliers, including: Cummins Engine, Allison Transmission, Robert Bosch LLC, Meritor Defense, Lotus Engineering, L3 Combat Propulsion Systems and Vehma International of America.