Looking to lead a team of strategic partners to assist in the development, build, integration and test of its Next Generation Combat Vehicle Prototype (NGCV-P), officials from the Defense Automotive Technologies Consortium (DATC) and the U.S. Army TARDEC unveiled details of the program’s Proposal Selection Process at a recently-held briefing in suburban Detroit.

With solicitation of this project through the Detroit Arsenal Automotive Other Transaction Agreement (DA² OTA) and management by DATC, an affiliate of SAE International, U.S. Army TARDEC, and the Army Contracting Command in Warren, this multi-million and multi-year program will bring in both traditional and non-traditional entities from the automotive, academia and defenses industries to leverage their latest automotive technical advancements across multiple disciplines.

“We have been working since September to set up a consortium of qualified companies to work on the NGCV-P,” said Dave Porreca, executive director of DATC.  “It is a tall order, but we are confident that with the level of top-flight organizations that have shown initial interest in the program, we can meet this aggressive schedule.”

Self-organized teams (only DATC member organizations are eligible to participate in the NGCV-P solicitation) will have less than 60 days from the Request for Project Proposal (RFPP) in early June to submit their team’s proposal.  It is expected that TARDEC will review the submissions and select a single team on August 31, with the official award contract on September 18.  Concept analysis and project development with take place from late 2017 through 2019, with the prototype building phase lasting from 2020 through 2022.  Testing of the prototypes will take place in 2023-2024.

“We started this process in 2016 and are expecting two prototypes to be delivered in 2022 that have to be better than we have now,” said Todd Thomas, TARDEC NGCV-P program manager.  “With our current fleet of combat equipment quickly nearing a stage of obsolescence, we have fast-tracked the schedule for the NGCV-P.”

It is anticipated that this TARDEC-sponsored OTA is just the first of a number of initiatives to be administered by the DA² OTA, as it has announced that this project is just one of a planned $700 million in available “headspace” authorized over a seven-year period of performance.

“There is a significant pipeline of upcoming projects coming through this OTA, providing ample opportunities for innovative engineering-minded organizations to work with a cross-section of government agencies, not just the Department of Defense,” said Porreca.  “The drive for the latest available technologies and collaboration between government and consortium members has never been greater.”

To learn more about DATC membership, visit: datc.saeitc.org/membership/.
 

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