Mack Defense to supply 135 additional M917A3 Heavy Dump Trucks to US Army.

Mack Defense announced on August 23 that the U.S. Am has ordered an additional 135 Mack Defense M917A3 Heavy Dump Trucks (HDTs). The additional vehicles are part of the previously announced firm-fixed price $296 million contract over seven years that the Army awarded Mack Defense in 2018. For this new order, 60 HDTs are being purchased by the U.S. Army Reserve, 74 are being funded by the presidential budget and one is being purchased by the U.S. Navy. With this tranche, a total of 446 HDTs have been ordered to date.
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Mack Defense will supply an additional 135 M917A3 Heavy Dump Trucks (HDTs) to the U.S. Army Reserve and the Army National Guard (Picture source: Mack Defense)

The HDTs are a key component in construction and maintenance missions for infrastructure assets, such as airfields, roadways, landing strips, supply facilities and motor pools. “With every additional order of a Mack HDT, the U.S. Armed Forces are reiterating their confidence in our product,” said David Hartzell, president of Mack Defense. “The U.S. military puts these trucks through the paces every day, and each subsequent requisition shows that the Mack HDT is meeting the military’s demanding requirements.”

The Army previously had ordered 311 HDTs, which are based on the commercially available Mack Granite model and spec’d with heavier-duty rear axles, all-wheel drive, increased suspension ride height and other ruggedized features to meet the unique requirements of the U.S. military.

The Mack Granite HDT model is a modern truck equipped with modern technology, such as ABS and other active safety systems. The Granite model is user-friendly, comfortable and safer to operate compared with other past models used by the Army, which is key to the Army’s investment in the new HDTs, Hartzell said. The Granite HDTs and the production line at the Mack Experience Center (MEC) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, were both inspected by the government quality auditors to ensure both met expectations.

Production of the HDTs at the MEC began in Q1 2021, following an investment of $6.5 million to create a dedicated HDT production line at the facility. The production line helps fulfill the M917A3 contract, while allowing Mack Defense to produce other vehicle variants.

The production line in the MEC is in Mack’s former Customer Adaptation Center, where vehicle modifications occurred. The Customer Adaptation Center has since moved to Mack’s Lehigh Valley Operations (LVO) in Macungie, Pennsylvania, where all Mack Class 8 vehicles for North America and export are assembled.

Defense News August 2023