American military's armor scandal: Faulty plates expose cracks
Bloomberg, citing sources within the metallurgical holding company Evraz North America Inc., revealed issues with the armour of American military vehicles, JLTV. Their armour, coming from a factory owned by a Russian, cracks under fire.
Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources from Evraz North America Inc.. This holding company owns metallurgical plants in the United States, that the results of the armour tests, manufactured in the Evraz factories in Portland, Oregon, were falsified for years.
The holding owner is Russian Roman Abramovich. The armour plates in his factories were delivered to the defence firm Oshkosh Defense LLC. According to Bloomberg, 12,800 armour plates of various types were sent to defence plants.
They were used to arm vehicles from the JLTV family—true American armed forces workhorses— meant to partially replace the military's Humvees (HMMWV). However, the vehicles' armour started cracking, even though theoretically, they should maintain the properties declared by the manufacturer for 20 years.
Falsifying test results from 2017-2019 supplied faulty armour plates. Although all elements were supposed to be controlled, only a few were selected from the production batch for quality control.
The scandal revealed is a probable explanation for why Oshkosh Defense LLC lost the contract to build the next series of JLTV vehicles, valued at $8.6 billion CAD, in 2023.
JLTV - complement and successor to the Humvee
JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) is a wheeled vehicle powered by a 6.6-litre V8 engine. It was introduced into service in the American armed forces in 2019. Since then, over 20,000 units have been produced. The basic variant weighs just over 10,000 kg and carries a three-person crew along with the driver.
JLTV vehicles were developed with MRAP (mine-resistant) requirements in mind. They are better armoured than HMMWVs. All vehicles leave the factory with standard armour (kit A), which can be supplemented with reinforced additional armour (kit B).
The universal JLTV chassis is the basis for numerous specialized vehicles, such as transport trucks, M2 heavy machine gun carriers, tank destroyers equipped with TOW anti-tank missiles, or the MADIS light anti-aircraft system developed for the Marine Corps.
JLTV family vehicles are used by armed forces worldwide, not only the American army. In Europe, Belgium, Montenegro, Lithuania, and Romania have ordered them.
