LOGISTICS VEHICLE SYSTEM REPLACEMENT
By Glenn W. Goodman, Jr.The Logistics Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR) is a new Marine Corps heavy payload truck. The 10-wheel tactical vehicle offers greater mobility and off-road payload capability that the existing Logistics Vehicle System (LVS), which the Corps initially fielded in the mid-1980s. The LVSR also offers reduced life-cycle costs.
The Logistics Vehicle System Replacement looks similar to its predecessor, but the new logistics vehicle’s capabilities include a whole new suspension and 50 percent better fuel economy. The truck can travel up to 300 miles on a tank of gas and has a load capacity of 45,000 pounds when traveling improved roadways.
Built by Oshkosh Corporation, the new tactical-distribution heavy hauler carries fuel, water, ammunition, standardized containers, palletized cargo, and heavy equipment.
The earlier-vintage LVS, also built by Oshkosh, is a two-piece truck-trailer, with a four-wheel-drive front power unit and five categories of trailer rear-body units. In contrast, the all-wheel-drive LVSR has a straight body design in three different variants – cargo, wrecker, and tractor. The wrecker performs heavy wrecker/recovery missions. The tractor variant will tow heavy engineer equipment and combat vehicles with the 40-ton Medium-Heavy Equipment Trailer.
“The LVSR will help address one of the biggest challenges we face in Afghanistan – getting supplies, fuel, water, and heavy equipment into areas where our Marines have to go,” said Marine Corps’ Program Executive Officer for Land Systems Bill Taylor. “This vehicle is disproportionately mobile compared to its size,” he added.
The LVSR is redefining logistics performance and exists in three variants: cargo, wrecker and fifth wheel.
Thanks to Oshkosh’s mechanical rear-steer technology, in which the rear wheels actually steer separately, the LVSR makes a complete 360-degree turn in only about 84 feet. This tight turning radius facilitates vehicle storage aboard ship.
The LVSR has a 600-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine and an Allison 7-speed automatic transmission.
The vehicle is 35.5 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 12 feet high. It has a “cabover” design, in which the cab hangs out over the front wheels fairly low to the ground.
The vehicle features factory-installed, integral underbody armor for cab floor mine-blast protection. To counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the Marine Corps has fitted the LVSR’s cab with a removable, add-on armor package developed by Israel’s Plasan Sasa. The vehicle was designed with the extra weight added by armor in mind.
Fielding of the LVSR cargo variant began in early summer 2009; the vehicle achieved an initial operational capability in September of that year. The program received approval for full-rate production for the cargo variant in December 2009. Tom Miller, the MTVR/LVSR program manager within the Program Executive Office for Land Systems, said the LVSR program is ahead of schedule and under budget.
As of July, about 700 LVSRs had been delivered to the Marine Corps, Miller said, and fewer than 100 were in Afghanistan and Iraq. After delivery, the vehicles are fitted with additional government-furnished warfighting equipment before being shipped overseas.
The LVSR wrecker and tractor variants began initial operational test and evaluation in September 2010. A full-rate production decision for both vehicles is scheduled in April 2011, Miller said, and fielding of them will begin in the summer of 2011.
The wrecker variant is able to easily recover heavy Mine-Resistant Ambush- Protected (MRAP) vehicles, which have given the 7-ton Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) wrecker some difficulty, he noted. The Marine Corps’ LVSR Approved Acquisition Objective (AAO) is 1,699, including 1,322 cargo variants, 105 wreckers, and 272 tractors, and the service has requested funding for the final 468 vehicles in fiscal year 2011. Miller said that a fiscal year 2012 budget initiative includes funding to increase the LVSR’s AAO to 2,246.
Miller said the Marine Corps began deploying the first four LVSR Cargo vehicles to Afghanistan in September 2009 in support of urgent fielding of the Mobile Trauma Bay. The latter is a fully enclosed and armored surgical unit with three operating stations in modular pieces that are mounted on the back of an LVSR. The Mobile Trauma Bay allows a five-person shock trauma platoon to treat severely wounded Marines earlier at forward casualty- collection points instead of making them wait for a medevac helicopter or ground vehicle.
The LVSR’s in-cab vehicle electronic diagnostics system lets the driver monitor the engine, transmission, brakes, central tire inflation system, and other critical components. The vehicle’s simplified maintenance features a single-source lubrication system, which houses the engine oil, transfer case, hydraulics, and transmission in the same reservoir.
The LVSR will be employed throughout the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) in the Marine Logistics Group, Marine Division, and Marine Aircraft Wing. Deployment of new LVSRs will reduce the cargo hauling burden of the Marine Corps’ MTVR convoys, Miller said.
The LVSR and the MTVR, also built by Oshkosh, form a formidable logistical tandem. (see separate MTVR article) They also share common parts and similar maintenance, which streamline service and support while reducing downtime.
0 comments:
Post a Comment