U.S. Special Forces order Ranger, Hilux and 70-Series Land Cruiser

[kscarbel2]

The global Ford Ranger pickup, Toyota Hilux pickup and Toyota 70-Series Land Cruiser are coming to the United States. But you'll need to enlist in the Army and pass a grueling special operations course to get behind the wheel.

http://www.toyota.co.za/ranges/land-cruiser-76

http://www3.toyota.com.au/landcruiser-70

http://www.toyota.co.za/ranges/hilux-double-cab

http://www3.toyota.com.au/hilux

The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has agreed to a deal with the Battelle Memorial Institute, worth up to $170 million over five years – with the option for two more years – to take off-the-shelf Ford Ranger pickups, Toyota Hilux pickups and Toyota 70-Series Land Cruisers and fit them with armor, heavy-duty suspension components, upgraded brakes, run-flat tires, new wheels, and sophisticated communications and observation equipment.

The overall idea is to build a truck with inconspicuous looks to protect and allow communications between troops while blending into traffic in potentially hostile countries.

According to Military Aerospace, Battelle is going to provide "all materials, equipment, hard tooling, personnel, and facilities necessary to manufacture, fabricate, integrate, produce, and test the up-armored trucks and SUVs with Special Operations communications gear aboard."

That makes it sound like a lot of the work is going to be out of the military's hands.

The contract is for 556 vehicles, over two-thirds of which Battelle would fit with armor. Mostly, Uncle Sam is mostly interested in the 70-Series Land Cruiser.

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[Unqualified contractor] Battelle to build armored trucks and SUVs for US Special Forces

U.S. unconventional warfare experts are developing armored sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks that look like ordinary stock vehicles, but that have military-grade vetronics, communications, night vision, ballistic protection, mobility, and tires designed to survive enemy small-arms fire.

Military vehicles experts at U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., are looking to the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, for the five-year potential $170 million Non-Standard Commercial Vehicles (NSCV) program. SOCOM announced the NSCV contract (H92222-16-D-0043) to Battelle on Wednesday.

The company will manufacture modified commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs, Toyota Hilux crew-cab pickup trucks, and Ford Ranger light pickup trucks that retain the original equipment manufacturer's profile while supporting new armor, heavy-duty suspension and brakes, run-flat tires and wheels, vetronics, and communications equipment.

The contract is for as many as 556 vehicles -- 396 armored and 160 unarmored -- with most of them consisting of the Toyota Land Cruiser models 76 and 79, officials say. SOCOM officials may order fewer of these modified vehicles if they choose.

SOCOM experts are ordering trucks and SUVs that offer low risk in system survivability, system-level maturity, manufacture, supportability, and life cycle costs.

Battelle will provide all materials, equipment, hard tooling, personnel, and facilities necessary to manufacture, fabricate, integrate, produce, and test the up-armored trucks and SUVs with Special Operations communications gear aboard.

The Toyota and Ford SUVs and pickup trucks will have various levels of enhanced crew protection, mobility, and operational capabilities. Vehicles will have special armor, suspension, brakes, frames and body reinforcements, as well as infrared lighting, blackout mode, and Special Operations command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) equipment.

The Battelle-modified trucks and SUVs will go through a design review process and approval after the Special Operations upgrades are completed, and then will be integrated into an initial vehicle lot.

The modified vehicles then will go through a contractor and government production qualification test. After testing, the government may issue delivery orders for production.

This indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity NSCV contract has a five-year potential $170 million ordering period with a potential $60 million two-year option.

On this contract Battelle will do most of the work in Columbus, Ohio, and should be finished by July 2023. For more information contact Battelle online at www.battelle.org, or SOCOM at www.socom.mil.

[kscarbel2]

Battelle (http://www.battelle.org/) is one of those U.S. military contract parasite entities that submits bids for work that they have no actual self-ability. If they win the bid, they’ll contract out the work, and the U.S. taxpayer ends up paying at least twice what the end result is worth. This atmosphere of government procurement is where the $1,200 toilet seats originate.

 

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Saw pix of another maker's attempt at this a few months back, basicly they took a new truck and tried to make it look like a typical 3rd world trashed out HiLux.