General Motors rewarms its military ties; Busy week at AUSA; The quest for realtime LVC training; and more.

As a car guy, I’ll confess to being a bit excited about last Sunday’s reception at General Motors’ Washington, D.C., offices, where the automaker showed off a hydrogen-powered Chevy truck that it has been quietly building for the U.S. Army.

Having attended plenty of military aircraft “reveals,” and having read my share of Motor Trend articles about flashy unveiling parties, I was curious to see how one of Detroit’s Big Three was handling its own pitch to the Pentagon. It seemed like the perfect way to kick off the annual Association of the United States Army, or AUSA, conference week — and a chance to ask GM executives about their vision for military sales.

The big takeaway: after operating at arm’s length from the Pentagon over the past decade, GM is shifting closer again, with the hydrogen-powered Chevy Colorado ZH2 a case in point. This is exactly what Defense Secretary Ash Carter has been seeking for the past year and a half: commercial firms whose products might become military game-changers.

“This relationship is about potential,” said Paul Rogers, who runs the Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, set up after World War II to be close to the U.S. automakers in Detroit. “Where for years the military investments in research led many industries, this is an example where the industry investment in advanced capabilities is now leading the military.”

General Motors publicly unveiled its new military truck at the Washington Convention Center, a place that many locals associate with the annual Washington Auto Show. (Our executive editor likes to call AUSA “the auto show on steroids.”)

So even though GM had not displayed at AUSA before, it was right at home in the cavernous convention hall, even if its exhibit space was smaller and far less ostentatious than those of the defense industry titans. On the conference’s opening day, GM employees literally pulled a black sheet from the Colorado ZH2 and handed out glossy posters and “hero” cards filled with performance characteristics of the truck, much like the auto show.

Behind the truck, a display case held a small, yellow submarine — another product of the budding relationship between GM and the Pentagon. The fuel-cell-powered drone is a joint effort with the Navy.

GM sold its defense business to General Dynamics Land Systems in 2003, but kept its hand in military manufacturing by building the Duramax diesel engine that powers the Oshkosh Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle. The Army is buying the L-ATV to replace tens of thousands of Humvees.

GM officials privately hinted that there might be more collaboration between the automaker and Pentagon, although they would not share specific details beyond the two fuel-cell projects. And it’s clear the Army is also hoping to rekindle the flame between old friends.

“We are using this relationship to explore the possibilities for the military, take advantage of that commercial investment for potential military applications,” Rogers said. “Not only for the technology it offers our warfighters, but also the economy of scale that would come with commercial investment, the producibility, the manufacturing expertise so that we could buy and field a very affordable system and we understand logistically, from a maintenance perspective how to support that on a modern battlefield.”

Companies Keep Busy at AUSA

Chiefs of staffs from armies around the world, as well as plenty of U.S. Army brass, were in attendance, keeping company executives busy in meetings both pre-arranged and ad-hoc. “We were having to take turns hitting the restroom,” one executive said of the busyness of his company’s meeting load. The aisles in both exhibit halls were clogged, and difficult to pass, most of Tuesday. Even though there’s not much money marked for Army modernization in the near term, that might change after the new administration steps into office.

Welcome!

Take a deep breath: the back-to-back-to-back (Air Force Association, Modern Day Marine, AUSA) DC trade-show season is now behind us. Not to brag, but I will: my trusty FitBit tells me I logged 13.1 miles walking around the AUSA exhibits on Monday and Tuesday alone. Send your tips, comments, and random thoughts to mweisgerber@defenseone.com, or hit me up on Twitter: @MarcusReports. You can check out the Global Business Brief archive here. And tell your friends to subscribe!


From Defense One

Tank Maker Teams Up With Remote-Control Car Company // Patrick Tucker

General Dynamics and Kairos look to bridge the gap from here to autonomy.

Pentagon Fronts Bomb Buys For Allies Fighting ISIS // Marcus Weisgerber

A special budget account is being used to boost weapons production ahead of allies' formal orders.

Beyond Big Dog: The US Army Searches for an Infantry Squadbot // Patrick Tucker

Service officials have a concept of operations and a plan to deploy a cargo-carrying robot alongside dismounted soldiers in 2019. But can the acquisition system keep up?


Cubic Explores Future of Virtual Training

The fighter jets of the future are a lot costlier to fly than the warplanes of the past, so pilots will do far more training and practice in virtual cockpits on the ground. Even the real jets have simulations built in, meaning that a pilot enjoying one of the F-35’s $40,000 flight hours might turn her helmet and see a virtual jet being “flown” by a wingman in a ground simulator.

It’s called live-virtual-constructive training, and “I think that’s the next big training domain, training frontier that we’ll see,” said Dave Buss, a retired Navy three-star who is now president of Cubic Global Defense.

LVC training aims to allow pilots to face the toughest threats in the world in the most realistic fashion possible. And it’s the best way to allow jet jockeys to learn how to use new high-tech radars and sensors that can see far beyond the confines of a training range.

“If we can come up innovative and cost-effective ways to help meet the performance measures that our customers are interested in, then that’s a pretty solid proposition for them,” Buss said.

This type of training is already happening, but the goal is to make it happen in real time between the real planes in the air and the simulator-flown ones on the ground. There are still no formal Pentagon programs, or even a budget, for this type of advanced simulation, although industry is expecting the Air Force to take the lead.

Cubic is pursuing training contracts across all of the military services, said Bradley Feldmann, the firm’s president and CEO, in an interview at AUSA.

Oshkosh Eyes International Growth

Truck-maker Oshkosh is projecting a slight bump in military sales in coming years as the Army ramps up its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle effort to replace 55,000 Humvees. But sales could really spike if European and Middle Eastern allies start buying the armored truck.

“The view we have right now, having been marketing our L-ATV [Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle] for about five years internationally and putting it in different demos and shows overseas, [is] the interest has been great,” said John Bryant, the president of Oshkosh Defense.

This month will see the company’s first L-ATV deliveries to the Army, which is expected to begin buying large numbers of them in 2019. The company is not anticipating foreign sales until after that.

“It’s a little bit out there, but we do know there’s been significant interest in the Middle East, … Europe,” Bryant said. “We’re very positive about the growth potential that’s built into the JLTV.”

Making Moves

Two former senior Pentagon officials known for their embrace of technology are now in the private sector. JD Johnson, a retired Army lieutenant general who ran the Joint IED Defense Organization, JIEDDO; became Raytheon’s vice president of business development for Army and special operations projects in the spring. The other is Zachary Mears, a former chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and director of the Advanced Capability and Deterrence Panel. Mears, who led the development of the Third Offset Strategy, joined Covington & Burling as a senior advisor in the Aerospace, Defense and National Security industry group and the public policy and government affairs practice.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.