Oshkosh gets $258 million in U.S. Army orders
Oshkosh Corp. has received more than $258 million in orders to rebuild trucks and produce trailers for the U.S. Army.
The rebuilding of the 670 heavy tactical vehicles and the production of 356 vehicle trailers will take place in Oshkosh, the company said Tuesday.
The first vehicles will roll off the assembly line in December. They’re being rebuilt on the same line as new vehicles.
The trucks are the U.S. military’s lifeline, utilized to haul ammunition, guns and supplies. Some of them have seen heavy use in Iraq and Afghanistan and are more than 20 years old.
One of the vehicles, the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, or HEMTT, is an eight-wheel-drive vehicle that’s been in continuous production since the early 1980s.
Another vehicle, the Palletized Load System, or PLS, can carry up to 16.5 tons.
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Many of the thousands of military trucks that Oshkosh has rebuilt in the past 20 years have seen the worst that combat can dish out. They've come back to the company with bent frames, mangled wheels and cabs riddled with bullet holes.
The trucks are stripped to the frame and rebuilt to like-new condition, Patrick Williams, Oshkosh Defense vice president, said in a statement.
It’s about 25% cheaper to rebuild a truck rather than replace it at a cost of $400,000, according to the Army.
The vehicles receive the latest technology and safety upgrades, and they’re delivered to the Army with a new warranty.
Altogether, the work supports several thousand jobs at Oshkosh Corp., one of the Fox Valley's largest manufacturers, in addition to supporting hundreds of jobs at the company’s suppliers.