BAE to build Bradley armored combat vehicles with battlefield networking vetronics in $656.2 million deal
WARREN, Mich. – Armored combat vehicles designers at BAE Systems will produce M2A4 and M7A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicles under terms of a $656.2 million contract announced last week.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich., are asking the BAE Systems Platforms & Services segment in York, Pa., to build the functionally new Bradley armored combat vehicles.
Armed reconnaissance
The M2 Bradley is an infantry fighting vehicle for reconnaissance and for transporting a squad of infantry. The armored vehicle protects warfighters inside from small arms fire, while its 25-millimeter chain gun provides firepower to counter many battlefield threats.
The Bradley is maneuverable and fast enough to keep up with heavy armor like M1 Abrams main battle tanks during an advance. One squad of soldiers typically number seven to 14.
The M2A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicle is a totally digital, full-tracked, medium armored vehicle that provides cross-country mobility, mounted firepower, communications, and protection to mechanized infantry. The armored combat vehicles have three seats for crew members and seven seats for squad members.
The M7A4 Bradley is an upgraded fire-support vehicle with integrated target location equipment to help direct artillery fire and airborne munitions. It has equipment for use by dismounted observers.
Digitized electronics
The M2A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicle's vetronics system features advanced digitized electronics that enable enhanced situational awareness, battlefield networking, and communications such as software-defined radios that enable the vehicle to work together with other battlefield systems, and improved command and control.
The first M2A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicles came off the manufacturing line in 2012 with heavyweight torsion bars and track upgrades, improved suspension, and new shock absorbers. The first operational Bradley Fighting Vehicle was completed in 1981.
BAE Systems is rebuilding legacy Bradley vehicles with upgraded electrical systems and power train to accommodate today's high-power demands from a variety of systems upgrades such as networked vetronics, software-defined radios, air conditioning systems, and even mobile battery chargers.
On this contract BAE Systems will do the work at locations to be determined with each order, and should be finished by January 2026. Last month's order will do the work in York, Pa., and should be finished by November 2027.
For more information contact BAE Systems Platforms & Services online at https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/our-company/inc-businesses/platforms-and-services, or the Army Contracting Command-Detroit Arsenal at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-dta/.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
