USA — Army extends deadline for bids to improve Humvee fleet

The U.S. Army is extend­ing its Request for Infor­ma­tion, or RFI, to indus­try as part of an effort to recap­i­tal­ize its fleet of up-armored Humvees, improv­ing sur­viv­abil­i­ty, mobil­i­ty and pay­load capac­i­ty for the vehi­cles, ser­vice offi­cials said.

M1151A1 High Mobil­i­ty Mul­ti-Wheeled Vehi­cle, or Humvee Source: US Army

Cit­ing a strong indus­try response along with the need to col­lect and ana­lyze more infor­ma­tion as part of a move toward find­ing the best tech­nolo­gies, Army offi­cials said they are encour­aged by the pos­si­bil­i­ties being pre­sent­ed by industry. 

The RFI and assess­ment of the results are part of a planned move toward com­pet­i­tive pro­to­typ­ing to achieve greater Sol­dier sur­viv­abil­i­ty through the Humvee reset program. 

“We have received a strong response to the RFI that went out in Jan­u­ary; there is a great deal of indus­try inter­est in improv­ing this vehi­cle. There have been a num­ber of com­pa­nies that have looked at ways of improv­ing the under­body pro­tec­tion of the HMMWV — both through adding V‑hulls and through oth­er advanced designs. That speaks to why we want to do this com­pet­i­tive­ly. We want to pull in the best designs from indus­try so we can pro­vide the Army lead­er­ship with a sol­id rec­om­men­da­tion to sus­tain this Army asset,” said Col. David Bas­sett, project man­ag­er for tac­ti­cal vehicles. 

The RFI — which was slat­ed to end in March has been extend­ed as part of a plan to move toward a for­mal Request for Pro­pos­al and con­tract awards lat­er this year. Pend­ing suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the RFI phase, mul­ti­ple con­trac­tors could be cho­sen as part of a com­pet­i­tive pro­to­typ­ing effort, Bas­sett said. Con­tracts will be in two phas­es of con­tracts, with phase one to be award­ed lat­er this year. 

Test­ing will empha­size sur­viv­abil­i­ty. The chal­lenge will be to improve sur­viv­abil­i­ty and pre­serve mobil­i­ty and pay­load while keep­ing costs down. “Live fire test­ing will be a key ele­ment in the eval­u­a­tions. We’re look­ing at ways to improve pro­tec­tion, mobil­i­ty and pay­load” said Bassett. 

The Army is aim­ing at max­i­miz­ing cost effec­tive­ness to sus­tain exist­ing Humvee. The Army plans to main­tain a fleet of HMMWVs into the future even while aggres­sive­ly pur­su­ing the JLTV [Joint Light Tac­ti­cal Vehi­cle], accord­ing to Bassett. 

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