“So in the end we have less total weight but we’re hauling more cargo,” Prosser noted. “And we are working toward a Full Rate Production decision on that new cargo variant trailer bed, which will then be taken and married up to the chassis that are already built. That decision may happen late this calendar year or early next year.”

At about that same time, the program management office will be addressing the acquisition milestone for a new fire truck. Designed to replace the current fleet of A/S32-P19A Aircraft Crash and Structure Fire Fighting Trucks with Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) trucks, the new P-19 Replacement ARFF Vehicle (P-19R) represents the first new Marine Corps fire truck procurement in 30 years.

The P-19R is intended to replace the A/S32 P-19A Aircraft Crash and Structure Fire Fighting Truck, known as the P-19A. The P-19A was introduced into service in 1984, with an intended service life of 12 years, but has been in service in excess of 28 years. The P-19R Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting vehicle will meet both the 2012 National Fire Protection Association 414 standards and the expeditionary fire fighting and aircraft rescue requirements of the U. S. Marine Corps. This program will replace P-19As at both Operational Force (OPFOR) units and garrison mobile equipment (GME) at Marine Corps Air Facilities.

If everything goes as planned over the next several months, Prosser anticipates making the contract award for P-19R in December 2012.

 

Tactical Performance/Future Challenges

Prosser’s takeaway messages highlighted the performance of both medium and heavy fleet vehicles in theater as well as future program challenges.

“The MTVR, especially, is the workhorse of the medium fleet,” he said. “It’s been out there longer. And it is being used in tactical and geographic environments that, quite frankly, were not expected when the vehicle was acquired. Take a look at things like the armoring we have applied to them or equipping them with a manned weapon station. Now I’m not going to say that they look like a combat vehicle; but they certainly don’t look like a truck either.

“In fact, those are some of the big issues that the Marine Corps is facing in terms of what we do with some of those ‘armored up’ vehicles,” he added. “We really need to evaluate how many armored MTVRs and armored LVSRs we need running around Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendletonor anywhere else in the United States. We think we want to keep them in an armored configuration, but the question becomes what we are going to do with them – store them, use them for training, or continue to run them regularly as an armored vehicle. So we have those things to work out along with the whole reset/reconstitution effort.”

He continued, “Another thing I would highlight is that the last word in both truck names is ‘Replacement,’ so they were both replacements for old systems in the Marine Corps. They were both built with basically a 22-year service life. And at this point, the first MTVR vehicles that were fielded are halfway through their expected service lives. However, if you look at our budgets, it’s clear that there’s not a replacement for the MTVR or LVSR out there. If there was we probably should be working on it already.

“Their planned 22-year service life did not include a depot maintenance rebuild program for them because of their technology and ruggedness,” he stated. “And right now there is no SLEP [Service Life Extension Program] or modernization upgrade on the schedule. None of that is planned. So one of the things that this program office has to start thinking about is the point where we have to do a major overhaul on these vehicles, an upgrade, or a SLEP to keep them effective well into the future. We don’t have the answers to that yet, but those are some of the things we are starting to explore.”

This article was first published in Marine Corps Outlook: 2012-2013 Edition.