First Posted: 3/17/2015
LIMA — Army officials and experts “affirmed” that there is opportunity for the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in the future.
Lima Mayor David Berger said a webinar on the Future of Ground Vehicles, shown by the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, was helpful and “affirmed” that what the JSMC is doing is in line with U.S. Army upgrades.
“The future of JSMC should be secure,” said Berger, also the co-chair of Task Force LIMA, a group dedicated to keeping the JSMC in Lima open.
“They are looking at evolutionary, meaning relatively small changes in their product needs, rather than dramatic new vehicles,” he said. “I think that’s good for the JSMC. It means that [the Stryker and Abrams] can be efficiently processed into prototypes that are now being built for the 2017 production cycle.”
The JSMC makes the Abrams tank and the Stryker vehicle, and plant officials recently announced that it is working on prototypes for upgrades for both vehicles.
The upgrades, slated to begin in 2017, will include the addition of more horsepower and enhancements of the electronics package, said Cliff Barber, product manager with General Dynamics, at a recent Task Force LIMA meeting. General Dynamics operates the government-owned facility.
During the webinar, hosted by DefenseNews, experts spent some time discussing the Stryker, a wheeled, light-armored vehicle.
In February, Ohio U.S. Sens. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown pushed for the Stryker to become the Army’s next Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle. The next AMPV is yet to be determined, Berger said.
Though there has been some debate over what type of vehicle the AMPV needs to be, Col. Mike Milner, project manager of AMPV, said the Army has never really made a case that the next AMPV has to be a tracked vehicle, which the Stryker is not.
The Army is “agnostic in terms of a wheeled or tracked solution,” Milner said during the webinar. “Maybe right now only a tracked solution can get there.”
Recent experiences have shown that the Army needs both kinds of vehicles, Berger said.
“They need to be able to go off road with tracked vehicles like the Abrams and they need to be able to operate on the road,” he said.
The Army recognizes that its systems are becoming dated and need to be upgraded, Berger said, which means real opportunity for the JSMC.
“I think it’s good to know that the Army is engaging in this planning for future upgrades,” Berger said.
