Navistar lands $880 million defense contract

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Updated: February 12, 2012 8:10AM

Lisle-based Navistar Defense LLC landed an $880 million order from the U.S. Marine Corps to upgrade more than 2,700 mine resistant ambush protected vehicles, the company announced Tuesday.

The Navistar International Corp. subsidiary will retrofit the MaxxPro vehicles with new rolling chassis to improve their off-road capability.

“As Defense budgets are being reduced, it is imperative that we continue to develop economical solutions that repurpose assets while also working to ensure warfighters have access to emerging technologies and capabilities,” Navistar Defense President Archie Massicotte said in a statement. “Our rolling chassis solution allows us to leverage our unique vehicle design and replace an older chassis with a new, highly mobile independent suspension chassis.”

Work will begin at the company’s West Point, Miss., assembly facility this month and is scheduled for completion in October 2013, the company said.

Navistar International’s subsidiaries manufacture commercial and military trucks, diesel engines, school and commercial buses and recreational vehicles.