AM General LLC has exhibited its Blast-Resistant Vehicle – Off Road (BRV-O) for the first time at the Defense Industrial Base Expo of the National Defense Industrial Association in Warren on May 15-16.

AM General, whose Engineering and Product Development Center is based in Livonia, announced in March it is backing two separate proposals for the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program. BRV-O is based on more than a decade of the company's own investments in research, development and testing for the next-generation light tactical military vehicle.

BRV-O features a crew capsule and modular armor already proven effective in government-supervised blast testing. This AM General design can be readily adapted to future changes in U.S. military missions, enemy threats and new protection technologies as they emerge. BRV-O also features a self-leveling suspension system, a C4ISR backbone with open-standard networked architecture and clustered super-computing power, and other advanced components. These and other mature subsystems make BRV-O a highly mobile and versatile platform that meets or exceeds 100 percent of JLTV EMD phase evaluation criteria including protection, performance, payload, transportability, reliability and affordability.

The lightweight, fuel efficient and high performance Optimizer 3200 engine powering BRV-O also will be exhibited at the expo, along with other products of General Engine Products and General Transmission Products, subsidiaries of AM General. The six-cylinder, 3.2 liter, sequentially-turbocharged engine is rated at 300 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. GEP will also introduce its proposed solution for the Next Generation Combat Engine based on Optimizer 3200 technology.