Washington, D.C. – This week, Congressman Rudy Yakym (IN-02) led his colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert and Ranking Member Betty McCollum urging them to maintain funding of the U.S. Army Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) modernization strategy in this year’s Department of Defense appropriations package.

AM General, which is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, partners with the Department of Defense to produce the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) in the Army’s LTV fleet. In addition to their South Bend Headquarters, AM General also has a 96-acre Manufacturing Campus in Mishawaka.

“Both the HMMWV and JLTV are instrumental in ensuring Army and Marine Corps readiness and combat power on the battlefields of today and tomorrow,” the Representatives wrote. “The Army has publicly stated that there will be 49,099 JLTVs and 55,000 HMMWVs in the fleet until 2050. Your leadership is critical to ensure the Army and Marine Corps LTV strategy is properly resourced in Fiscal Year 2025.”

In addition to Rep. Yakym, Reps. Jim Banks (IN-03), Victoria Spartz (IN-05), John James (MI-10), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Trent Kelly (MS-01), Frank Mrvan (IN-01), Eric Sorensen (IL-17), Marc Molinaro (NY-19), and Mike Turner (OH-10) also signed the letter. 

The full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum:

We write to request your support to maintain funding of the U.S. Army Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) modernization strategy as you begin consideration of the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The Army’s LTV fleet consists primarily of two vehicle platforms: The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). Both the HMMWV and JLTV are instrumental in ensuring Army and Marine Corps readiness and combat power on the battlefields of today and tomorrow. The Army has publicly stated that there will be 49,099 JLTVs and 55,000 HMMWVs in the fleet until 2050. Your leadership is critical to ensure the Army and Marine Corps LTV strategy is properly resourced in Fiscal Year 2025.

The HMMWV has been the workhorse LTV platform for the Army since 1985. The vehicle is a byproduct of decades of innovation, battlefield lessons learned, and technology insertion. The HMMWV of today is playing a vital role across the globe in addition to its countless missions at home and abroad for U.S. forces. The Army LTV Strategy has a standing requirement of 56,901 HMMWVs to equip its LTV fleet. However, too many units are coping with aging HMMWVs that are increasingly unreliable and poorly equipped. By 2030, the average age of the HMMWV fleet will be 20 years and the oldest trucks in the fleet will be 40 years old. To sustain the HMMWVs economic useful life, the Army needs to resource a production rate of 2,500 HMMWVs per year. The modernized HMMWV provides the Army with the newest safety enhancements and technologies to support and protect the warfighter. The Army must have additional funding in Fiscal Year 2025 to maintain a production rate of 2,500 new modernized HMMWVs per year to maintain readiness in the Active and Reserve Component.

The JLTV features greater payload, blast protection, and armoring capability due to its weight and size relative to the lighter, more mobile HMMWV.  The Army’s stated objective is to procure 49,099 JLTVs for its LTV fleet over the life of the program.  JLTV is in its eighth year of production and first year of the new A2 variant, which provides greater mobility, reliability, and technological capability than the original JLTV. To meet its LTV modernization goals, the Army requires production of 2,500 JLTVA2s annually. Sufficient funding is needed in Fiscal Year 2025 to ensure the JLTVA2 production variant is fielded to units on schedule and consistent with Army and Marine Corps readiness requirements.

The Defense Department relies on the U.S. LTV defense industrial base that includes employees at major facilities in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, and a strong supplier base that stretches across 43 states. Global supply chain disruptions continue to impact 1,000+ small and medium-sized businesses in the Midwest that are part of the LTV industrial base. Today’s supply base is more susceptible to downturns than in the past due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global factors contributing to price inflation of raw material, labor, and transportation. The time associated with qualifying a new supplier is a minimum of 6-8 months, creating a substantial risk in meeting customer requirements for new vehicles. Therefore, it is critical that we maintain your support for balanced funding of the Army’s LTV modernization strategy as you begin consideration of the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration of this request.