Report: 3 Firms Could Offer Bids for UK Protected Vehicle Program’s Troop Carrier Package

General Dynamics, Thales and Mercedes-Benz could submit proposals to the U.K. defense ministry by Sept. 28 for the second package of the Multi-Role Vehicle-Protected program that seeks to support the establishment of strike brigades for the U.K. army by 2025, Defense News reported Sunday.

“A second package aims to procure, through competition, troop carriers and ambulances that will share a common base vehicle,” an MoD spokeswoman told Defense News.

“We anticipate a decision on this proposal in mid-2018, with the competition winner planned to be on contract in 2019,” she added.

The report said General Dynamics is expected to propose its 6×6 Eagle vehicle, while Thales and Mercedes-Benz’s defense business are anticipated to respectively offer a Bushmaster platform and a Unimog chassis-based vehicle.

MoD has begun negotiations with the Defense Department over the possible procurement of an Oshkosh Defense-built joint light tactical vehicle through a foreign military sales agreement as part of the MRV-P program’s first package.

The ministry expects to decide on the JLTV proposal by early 2018, the spokeswoman added.