Oshkosh Corp.’s military vehicle production, work that has sustained thousands of Wisconsin jobs in recent years, is poised to take a hit from a Defense Department plan to divert $3.83 billion from elsewhere in its budget to build 177 miles of President Donald Trump’s Mexico border wall.

However, Friday evening, in an announcement unrelated to the defense spending diversions, the Pentagon said that Oshkosh has received $407.3 million in orders for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) for the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and foreign military sales in Lithuania and Slovenia.

That announcement on the Pentagon's website was a modification to an existing contract, awarded in 2015, for the vehicles built in Oshkosh. No further details were made available, but four years ago the government said the contract could be worth up to $30 billion and provide 25 years of work to thousands of people building the new truck or supplying parts for it.

The JLTV is aimed at replacing the military Humvee which hasn't fared well in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike the Humvee, which has been a troop carrier for more than 30 years, the JLTV has the blast resistance of a larger armored vehicle, according to the military.

A first look at the planned cuts related to the border wall shows that $101 million will be moved from the production of Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTTs) that the Army has relied on to carry munitions and other critical supplies.

The HEMTTs have been in the Army’s fleet since 1981. Since 1995, Oshkosh Corp. has rebuilt more than 12,500 of those vehicles — essentially stripping them to the frame and rebuilding them to like-new condition.

Federal budget documents show $101 million being diverted from HEMTTs because "the procurement of legacy vehicles is inconsistent with the goals to modernize the Tactical and Support Vehicle fleet in support of the National Defense Strategy."

Most of the $3.83 billion in defense spending diversions come from canceling purchases of military aircraft, ships and drones, according to the documents.

The new spending plan allows the Defense Department to build a barrier as part of its “drug interdiction and counter-drug activities,” budget documents show. According to The Washington Post, the funds will cover construction costs for 177 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Oshkosh Corp. has 3,100 employees and 750 suppliers involved in its defense industry work. In 2010, the company was praised by the Pentagon for engaging in one of the most rapid military-truck buildups since World War II. A year ago, it received a $232 million order to rebuild 407 HEMTTs as well as manufacture 601 new trailers for the Army.

Many of the thousands of military trucks that Oshkosh has built or rebuilt in the last 20 years have seen the worst that combat can dish out. They’ve come back to the factory with bent frames, mangled wheels and cabs riddled with bullet holes.

“As the original equipment manufacturer, we know these vehicles inside and out, and we are in the best position to quickly return them to field operations in like-new condition,” Pat Williams, vice president and general manager of U.S. Army and Marine Corps programs for Oshkosh Defense said in 2019.

The company declined to answer questions about the Defense Department's plans to divert money from HEMTTs to the Mexico border wall. No one was available Friday night to address the JLTV announcement, but in a news release Monday morning company officials confirmed the $407.3 million order and said there was growing foreign military interest in the vehicles.

In a statement on Friday, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin's office said the Defense Department's proposal takes $101 million from Oshkosh Defense after Baldwin "worked to secure this funding in the FY20 spending bill to support hundreds of jobs in small and medium-sized businesses across the Midwest and is crucial to our national and economic security."

“President Trump promised the people of Wisconsin that Mexico would pay for his border wall and now he is making American taxpayers fund it,” said Baldwin, a Democrat. “Wisconsin manufacturers strengthen our national defense and create jobs, but Trump is taking funding away from our economy and the workers that build it.”

According to Baldwin’s office, the new spending plan also diverts $650 million from a Navy ship that would have been powered by an engine made by Beloit-based Fairbanks Morse. A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, an Oshkosh Republican, said in a statement that he believes securing the southern border is a top priority and accused Democrats of opposing any effort to fund border wall construction. His office has requested more information from the Defense Department about its spending plan.

"Previous funding shifts have been structured in a way to avoid impacting the purchase of equipment designed to keep the members of our military safe," Johnson said. "I urge the administration to take that same approach with heavy vehicles as well."

A spokesman for Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, who represents Oshkosh, did not immediately respond to questions.

The planned cuts would drain more than $1 billion from programs that modernize some of the Army National Guard's oldest equipment, said John Goheen, spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States.

"It wipes out an entire year of the National Guard and Reserves equipment account which has been a lifeline for many years," Goheen said.

Included in the cuts would be $100 million for modernizing Humvees.

"The Guard has about 40,000 Humvees, of which about half are more than 20 years old," Goheen said.

About 3,800 of the Guard's Humvees have been modernized, much like what Oshkosh Defense has done with HEMTTs. "But it's hardly made a dent in the actual need. Imagine going to war or a natural disaster with 20-year-old vehicles," Goheen said.

Overall, the National Guard and Reserves would lose $790 million from their equipment account, $169 million for two C-130J Super Hercules cargo planes and $100 million for the Humvee modernizations.

"It really stalls some very important programs," Goheen said.

Historically, the military has underfunded the National Guard, retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson, president of the National Guard Association of the United States, said in a statement.

“They have done so more recently knowing that Congress will make up some of the difference. In fact, this gives the services something of an excuse as to why they don’t pay more attention to Guard equipment modernization. Any inference that these aren’t critical needs for the Guard is false. This is just the Guard being used as a convenient bill-payer," Robinson said.