Oshkosh Defense has successfully completed the U.S. government's Production Readiness Review in the competition to replace the U.S. military's Humvee.

The review, part of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the competition, included a review of Oshkosh's manufacturing readiness, quality management system and production planning capabilities to meet scheduling, performance and cost requirements for production of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.

"Oshkosh Defense's Production Readiness Review demonstrated that we are ready to start JLTV production on an active and proven production line that is already building heavy, medium and protected MRAP military vehicles for our armed forces today," said retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Urias, Oshkosh Corporation executive vice president and president of Oshkosh Defense.

"Throughout the EMD phase we've been preparing our facilities, personnel and systems to seamlessly transition into production. In fact, we built our 22 EMD vehicles on our active assembly line in early 2013 -- right alongside our MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle, Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles, Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, and other military and commercial platforms."

Oshkosh is one of three remaining competitors for the JLTV contract, which is expected to be awarded next year. A total of about 49,000 vehicles are expected to be ordered, with the vast majority destined for the Army and the remainder for the Marine Corps.

Both Lockheed Martin and AM General, the manufacturer of the Humvee, recently completed their Production Readiness Reviews.

All three have each produced 22 prototype models of their vehicle offerings, which have been put through extensive on- and off-road testing by the Army.

The Oshkosh candidate vehicle is its Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle, or L-ATV. It is a lightweight and compact platform that merges the key design elements of highly survivable combat vehicles and off-road tactical vehicles.

Oshkosh said independent testing has shown its L-ATV delivers superior ride quality at speeds 70 percent faster than other tactical wheeled vehicles.