Plasan as supplier of armored cabins for AM General JLTV A2 participates in AUSA 2023.

Plasan North America (PNA) on July 17 announced its selection as a subcontractor for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle A2 (JLTV) program by AM General. The company will supply the armored hulls to AM General for the second phase of JLTV in the USA, as well as the overall protection and survivability solutions for Hanwha’s Redback AS21 IFV for the Australian Army LAND 400 Phase 3 Program. The JLTV platform is another example of a vehicle that takes advantage of Plasan’s “kitted hull” armor technology.
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AM General JLTV A2 displayed at AUSA 2023 (Picture source: Twitter account of Matt Beinart)

Plasan North America has a long-standing relationship with the JLTV program, providing high-quality armor components for the last seven years. With this new contract, the company will further contribute to the program's success and increase its impact in ensuring the safety and performance of the JLTV A2.

The Plasan “kitted hull” - out of the box - concept

Success takes place when innovation meets pressing needs. This happened at the beginning of this Millennium when the US Army was in urgent need of 1,000s of vehicles with a new protection-mobility profile required by the circumstances in Afghanistan and Iraq. The answer was Plasan´s kitted hull concept” – a protected vehicle cabin “out of the box” that enabled the OEMs to assemble hundreds of vehicles per week, without skilled, armor-certified welders for the hull and no need for huge floor space.

The kitted hull concept is just as innovative today in answering the needs of tomorrow:

• Short development cycle and time to market, also for a vehicle variant family
• Manufacturing simplicity – bolted & bonded together at the OEMs assembly line, wherever it is today or needs to be tomorrow
• Modularity (i.e. exchange just the roof section, if you need to add an RCWS)
• Upgradability (i.e. transform STANAG 4569 Level 2 to Level X as the threat changes)
• Multi-material architecture – combining steel, aluminum, ceramic, and composites using what is best where it´s best, for the ideal weight-protection balance
• Repairability on a part level – impressive ILS advantages, time & material savings = minimized life cycle cost

The first concept design to exhibit the engineering “spark” and flexibility of the kitted hull was done on a commercial Ford chassis – a first-generation SandCat vehicle. Current successful vehicles like the Thales Australia Hawkei, the JLTV A1 and A2 from Oshkosh and AM General, and new developments like the Mercedes G-wagon LAPV prototype, are all based on the kitted hull concept.

Defense News October 2023