US Army pauses CTT acquisition plan

Rheinmetall's proposal for the Common Tactical Truck was displayed at the Association of the United States Army annual conference. (Janes/Meredith Roaten)

The US Army is re-evaluating its plan to replace its fleet of trucks, according to a 21 January notice.

Four companies submitted prototypes to the Common Tactical Truck (CTT) Program of Record for army testing after which the service planned to select a vendor to build a family of vehicles to replace the M915 Line-Haul Tractor and M1088 Medium Tractor, the Palletized Load System (PLS), and the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). The army published several requests for information (RFIs) in the boreal fall of 2025, responses to which caused the pause, according to the notice.

The Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC) was expected to make a decision on final requirements in fiscal year (FY) 2026, according to an army statement in 2023. An army spokesperson had not responded to Janes questions at the time of publication.

The service selected Navistar Defense, a team of American Rheinmetall and GM Defense, Mack Defense, and Oshkosh Defense in 2023 to build prototypes for testing that would inform requirements for the final request for proposals which was expected in 2026.

Acquisition reassessment

Before the pause, the army had planned to conduct testing to support a single-vendor contract award, according to a Department of Test and Evaluation (DOTE) report published in January 2025. Then it was to complete cyber and kinetic survivability testing after the programme transitions to milestone C. Low-rate initial production (LRIP) was planned for FY 2028, according to the DOTE report. At that time, the army was requesting funding to produce 7,217 CTTs by FY 2035, but it is unclear if this remains the goal.