The Grizzly JLTV.
Blackwater Closes Vehicles Division, Lays Off Employees
By kris osborn
Published: 3 Nov
Blackwater USA has closed its vehicle operation after unsuccessfully bidding for contracts to build Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, company officials said Nov. 2.
The Grizzly was a candidate for JLTV contracts.
The Moyock, N.C., firm will lay off an unspecified number of employees of the vehicles division, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrell said in a written statement.
“We built some great trucks that will be used to protect our own people abroad. But with no JLTV award, we couldn’t keep the entire operation going. The company will continue to develop and manufacture target systems, as we always have,” Tyrell said.
Blackwater had entered prototypes of its Grizzly MRAP in the competition to build 30-ton MRAP IIs, a contest that was eventually cancelled by the Pentagon. Blackwater will continue to equip its own security forces with its Grizzly vehicle.
The company had also partnered with Raytheon to build and submit JLTV prototypes, which were not selected among the three winners on Oct. 29.
Last May, U.S. Special Operations forces examined Blackwater’s high-speed, 100-miles per hour Light Strike Vehicle, which was also developed by the firm’s vehicles division.
Known for its security and training businesses, Blackwater has been working to expand into new areas, of which military vehicle production was one.
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Industry Winners
General Tactical Vehicles, a joint venture between General Dynamics (GD) Land Systems and Humvee-maker AM General, offered a 10-ton JLTV prototype with two overlapping hulls, 30 inches of ground clearance and semi-active suspension.
“GD and AM General are the team to beat because they combine the company with legacy knowledge of the Humvee with the company that is already the Army’s biggest contractor,” Thompson said.
The GTV vehicle has a 300-horsepower engine with a high power-to-weight ratio.
“We have a 27- to 29-horsepower-to-ton ratio, which gives us the performance characteristics we did not want to lose by increasing payload and protection,” said GTV’s director of business development, Jim Flynn. “There is growth in the program to make it electric drive that is hybrid-capable if needed.”
Northrop-Oshkosh is the one team of the three with an alternative propulsion system as its primary mode. Their prototype uses a diesel-electric propulsion system drive: a diesel engine drives a generator that creates electricity to power an electric traction motor that drives the axle, Oshkosh Vice President Steve Zink said in September. The system is built to be easily modified as technology improves, he said.
“Our diesel-electric propulsion system allows you to optimize the weight of the system,” Zink said. “We have gone with lightweight components. This also enables us to create a smaller crew capsule.”
The Northrop-Oshkosh JLTV also has a recently upgraded TAK-4 independent suspension, allowing the vehicle to move faster across open country and rough terrain.
“They [the Army] wanted a nontraditional contractor who could come up with something very imaginative. Northrop-Oshkosh brings imagination to the table,” Thompson said.
The Lockheed Martin-BAE team delivered three prototype JLTVs to the Army led program with variable ride-height suspension, a unique hull design and lightweight armor composites.
“What the Army saw in the Lockheed team was the opportunity to get new ideas,” Thompson said. “The virtue of the Lockheed team is that it combines new ideas with all of the vehicle depth and expertise of Armor Holdings, which is part of BAE.”