Oshkosh Corp. will cease making Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for the U.S. Army by the end of 2024 and begin looking at turning its Oshkosh Defense manufacturing plant on Oshkosh's south side to new uses.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Monday announced it had rejected the company's protest of the Army's decision in February to award a new $9.7 billion JLTV contract to AM General, of South Bend, Indiana. The news came just two weeks after Oshkosh Defense celebrated completion of its 20,000th JLTV under the initial 2015 contract for the trucks, a high-tech troop transport truck that was designed to replace the military's fleet of Humvee vehicles.

In a statement, the GAO said it determined that the Army reasonably evaluated both companies' proposals and that "any judgments made were consistent with and adequately supported by the content provided in written proposals or observed as part of site visits conducting during the course of the solicitation process."

According to the GAO, Oshkosh Corp. protested the Army’s evaluation of both companies' technical proposals, as well as the agency’s evaluation of AM General’s price and cost proposal. Oshkosh Corp. also argued that the Army unreasonably and unequally conducted discussions and should not have found AM General to have the necessary financial, technical, and other business capabilities needed to perform the contract successfully.

In a statement, Oshkosh Corp. said it believes its proposal was "the lowest risk, best value solution.

"While this news is disappointing, it does not take away from the hard work we have done since receiving the initial contract in 2015," the company said. "In that time, we have built a world-class team and produced over 20,000 JLTVs for the U.S. Military and international allies. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on our mission to provide the highest quality vehicles and technologies that enable our Warfighters to perform their missions and return home safely."

In conversations over the past month, CEO and President John Pfeifer tended to speak of the JLTV program in the past tense and to emphasize the need to focus on growing the company through acquisitions and innovation in electric drives, automomous vehicles and other future-focused technology.

Pfeifer earlier this month said cost-containment pressures on the Department of Defense pushed it to award the contract to AM General, a company with no history of building the trucks and at a price at which Oshkosh Corp. would lose money.

More: CEO says Army truck contract awarded to AM General would be financial loser for Oshkosh Defense

"We're an award winning supplier, it's our design, it's our technology, they've given us awards through for performance, and the fact that they're giving it to somebody else, I think it's the craziest thing in the world," Pfeifer said. "We have warm plants, and ... they're going to cause us to shut down a plant that's been an award winning performer, to tool up another plant to do exactly the same thing."

What will happen to the JLTV factory in Oshkosh has not been determined, Pfeifer said. Oshkosh Defense will continue to build JLTVs under the 2015 contract through 2024, giving it time to look for ways to repurpose the plant, either for new defense contracts that the company continues to win or other products.

Last year, JLTV sales were about $1 billion. That's about 12% of Oshkosh Corp.'s $8.3 billion annual sales and half of its annual defense sales.

"We've got great people there. It's a phenomenal operation — we just have to decide what's the future in '25 onward for that that operation," he said.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Oshkosh Defense loses bid to win back $9.7B military truck contract