U.S. Army combat vehicles experts are asking engineers at the Marvin Group in Inglewood, Calif., to redesign and upgrade the auxiliary power units (APUs) in the vetronics of the Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) fire-support vehicle.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command in Warren, Mich., have issued a presolicitation (W56HZV-16-R-L171) asking the Marvin Group's Marvin Land Systems segment in Inglewood, Calif., for additional development of hydraulic and electric APUs for the Army's MLRS vehicle.
Marvin Land Systems provides the APU and environmental control unit for the MLRS vehicles deployed today. The M270 MLRS is an armored self-propelled rocket launcher able to fire salvos of guided and unguided rockets at targets nearly 200 miles away. It has been in service since 1983.
Army researchers are asking Marvin Land Systems to develop the MLRS APU further, as well as demonstrate an electric-only output APU that would fit on armored ground vehicles about the size of the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
A vehicle's auxiliary power unit provides electrical power to the MLRS vehicle - especially to enable its companion environmental control unit. The existing MLRS APU from Marvin weighs less than 330 pounds, and provides 8.5 kilowatts of power at 28 volts DC output, with voltage ripple independent of the engine speed or load at less than 100 millivolts of root mean square (RMS) power.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Marvin Land Systems online at www.marvingroup.com/index.php/companies/mls.
