US Army awards contracts to build new Common Tactical Truck

The U.S. Army needs new trucks. The service wants to replace its aging Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles with more affordable models based on commercial designs.

To build its new Common Tactical Truck (CTT), the Army awarded four contracts to different companies to build prototypes. Each team will construct variants of the Army’s M915 Line Haul Tractor and M1088 Medium Tractors, as well as a new Palletized Load System and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

The four contracts were given to Mack Defense, Navistar Defense, Oshkosh Defense and an American Rheinmetall and General Motors Defense team. The total price of all four contracts was $24.3 million.

Unlike Humvees or MRAPs, which are mostly used for troop transport, the Army uses CTTs to haul larger equipment or other items. Think of CTTs as the semitrucks of the Army.

With this latest push to develop new CTTs, the Army wants to take advantage of currently available commercial technologies and adapt them for military purposes. By using more standardized equipment and streamlining the supply, maintenance and training requirements, the Army hopes its new fleet of CTTs will be more reliable. Also, because of the availability of new parts, the new CTTs should also be easier to maintain in theater.

Brig. Gen Luke Peterson, the Army’s program executive officer in charge of combat support and combat service told Defense News, “We are going to really learn what industry can offer us, and affordability is going to be the key driver here for the Army to make those informed decisions.”

The Army will start reviewing initial prototypes for new CTTs early next year, and make final determinations on whether to move forward with a new CTT design in 2026. The Army will need about 5700 vehicles during initial production, and the combined value of those vehicles will be around $5 billion dollars.