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On 27 January 2023, the National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC), the evaluation body for the US Army, selected the American Rheinmetall Vehicles/GM Defense joint venture, Oshkosh Defense, Mack Defense, and Navistar Defence for the first phase of the US Army’s Common Tactical Truck (CTT) programme.
The CTT family of trucks is intended replace 40,000 legacy heavy tactical trucks for the US Army, including the M915 Line Haul Tractor, M1088 Medium Tractor, Palletized Load System (PLS), and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). The four companies have been awarded a combined total of USD 24.24 M, to provide three prototypes each for the CTT family of vehicles, with one prototype covering the replacement for M915 and M1088, one for PLS, and one for HEMTT. The multi-phase programme is valued at approximately USD 14 Bn (EUR 12.9 Bn) in total.
In the first phase, prototypes are to be built for trials, which are due to begin at the end of 2023. Once trials have been completed from around late 2023, the supplier is expected to be selected in time for an initial production and delivery contract to be signed in 2025.
American Rheinmetall and GM Defense have entered a strategic partnership for this programme, to create a technologically sophisticated modern tactical truck which improves on the legacy vehicles with the implementation of various modern features. These include advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for greater safety, an open digital architecture, support for autonomous operation, increased off-road capability, cyber security, improved survivability and fuel efficiency, as well as other new technologies.
The vehicles will be based on the HX3 series from Rheinmetall’s subsidiary Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV), which has been unveiled in mid-2022. It is a further development of the HX vehicle family, which operationally proven and has entered service with a number of NATO member states. The HX3 series is based on the commercial truck portfolio of MAN Truck and Bus, and contains a high degree of commercially available components, which according to Rheinmetall was a priority requirement of the US Army in the CTT programme. The company stated that the design is configurable from a 4×4 to 10×10 chassis, and possesses a high level of commonality across variants.
Oshkosh Defense said their CCT prototypes are based on a modernised version of the proven Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) platform. The company stated that they had already developed six CTT variants, including Load Handling System (LHS), Off-Road Tractor, Line Haul Tractor, Cargo, Wrecker, and Tanker.
The company stated that their FHTV’s flexible architecture allows it to support a variety of missions, and the vehicle can be scaled up or down with minimal changes. Oshkosh added that their platform offered the technologies to meet the US Army’s requirements for active safety, fuel demand reduction, autonomy, mission flexibility, prognostics, commonality, and superior survivability.
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