WARREN, Mich. – Armored combat vehicles experts at BAE Systems will build networked armored combat vehicles that will take-on battlefield duties as armored ambulances, mortar carriers, engineer vehicles, and command vehicles under terms of a $184.4 million order announced in September.
Officials of the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich., are asking the BAE Systems Platforms & Services segment in York, Pa., for Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles (AMPVs).
The Army's AMPV networked armored combat vehicle is based on open-systems standards and consists of five vehicle variants: general purpose, mission command, mortar carrier, medical evaluation, and medical treatment vehicles. The contract is for early-order material in support of future AMPV purchase, and facility-capacity-expansion efforts to increase AMPV production.
The AMPV, which is replacing the Army’s Vietnam-era M113 family of combat vehicles, and also will back-up the BAE Systems M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the battlefield.
The AMPV program calls for vetronics and software that adhere to the U.S. military's Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY) standards, which use an adopt-adapt-author approach independent of specific hardware or software.
The program aims to provide the Army with a survivable and mobile fleet of vehicles to replace the M113. The AMPV capitalizes on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and M109A7 advanced Paladin self-propelled artillery designs to enable the AMPV to maneuver with other modern combat vehicles in the Army's armored brigade combat team (ABCT).
Related: Vetronics designers struggle to fill the gaps where open systems fall short
BAE Systems won a $400.9 million order in January 2020 to build 160 new AMPVs. That order was a modification to a potential $1.2 billion contract awarded to BAE Systems in late 2014 to develop and build the AMPV. BAE Systems engineers are designing the new vehicle to accommodate periodic technology upgrades.
In 2017 BAE Systems won a $15.2 million order to upgrade the vetronics architecture of the AMPV with battlefield networking capability to enable the AMPV to be part of secure wireless networks to coordinate communications and tactics among other combat vehicles and command echelons, as well as provide networking among the vehicle's on-board systems.
On this order BAE Systems will do the work in York, Pa., and should be finished by May 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 Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command at https://tacom.army.mil.
