We're Replacing Old Humvees With the JLTV

The US Army and Marine Corps are in need of trucks that can carry two to four troops at a time and that are tough enough to endure bombs and mines, but not so heavy that they can't be ferried by air—and Oshkosh just won the $6.75 billion contract to provide them, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Wisconsin-based company beat out Lockheed Martin and AM General to provide almost 17,000 new Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs—and perhaps as many as 55,000 over the next quarter-century—to replace the military's older fleet of Humvees built by AM General, the paper notes. The contract will also fuel thousands of jobs, per the AP.

The new JLTV "would have the protective armor of a tank but the fleet-footed mobility of a Jeep," unlike the "thin-skinned Humvees" currently in use, the Washington Post notes. The contract appears to be a big relief for Oshkosh, whose defense unit has had troubles in recent years. "[The contract] is the difference between having a viable defense business for the next five or 10 years and having a big question mark," a Jefferies analyst tells the Journal. (Hopefully we won’t blow millions of dollars shipping the trucks to where they need to go.)