Excitement is running high at Oshkosh Defense this week.
"Getting this contract is great news," said Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Oshkosh Defense got a $7 billion contract developing Joint Light Tactical Vehicles known as JLTV's. Those will replace the Humvee's in the military.
"Lots of wheel travel, it's got the survivability of an MRAP which we saw in our MATV's in the middle east, it's got the armor of a light tank and again it's like a Baja racer," said Oshkosh Corporation President, Wilson Jones.
Democratic U.S.. Senator Tammy Baldwin has been fighting for the contract in Washington. She says there's a need for these type of vehicles in the military.
"We wanted to make sure that in tight budget times that these priorities didn't fall by the way side," said Senator Baldwin.
The success of the JLTV and the contract success is two fold because not only does the technology help protect the military it also is helping create hundreds of jobs in Northeast Wisconsin.
"We've been able to go through our call back lists of different individuals who were not able to stay through some of our downturn and now we've been through that call list and we're working on adding more and it's exciting to be hiring over 300 people," said Jones.
Two hundred of the 300 available spots have already been filled which leaves just 100 jobs left.
"We are still a state that makes things. We're proud of that reputation. Our manufacturing base at least as a percentage of our workforce is leading in the country," explained Senator Baldwin.
The JLTV's are expected to be deployed and used in the military by next fall.
