Navistar Defense, LLC announces it has submitted a bid to compete for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program. The company will bid with a variant of its International Saratoga light tactical vehicle, which Navistar launched in October after conducting its own automotive and blast testing.
Channeling Navistar’s commercial background, the Saratoga was originally designed to target a gap in the light tactical vehicle market. Its flexible platform is derived from an integration strategy that allows the company to rapidly develop new vehicle variants to meet different customer needs while keeping investment costs low.
“We made a significant investment in developing the Saratoga on our own nickel because that’s what we do commercially – it is part of our DNA,” says Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “The Saratoga is a solid design and now that we have seen the requirements of the JLTV migrate toward our vehicle capabilities, we are in a position to modify the Saratoga to fit those requirements.”
The Saratoga light tactical vehicle has a high degree of commonality with fielded vehicles and incorporates Navistar’s automotive and manufacturing expertise. The company has also designed and tested its own proprietary survivability solution for the vehicle, which considers material mix, vehicle structure and hull shape.
