22 Dec 06. Force Protection, Inc. and General Dynamics Land Systems will form a joint venture to compete for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle program, a U.S. joint services program being managed by the U.S. Marine Corps. The joint venture was formed to offer Force Protection’s Cougar 4×4 and 6×6 armored vehicles as an MRAP solution. The joint venture will include an experienced team in program management, systems engineering, production and service support from both Force Protection and General Dynamics. The venture builds on an earlier agreement between the companies for General Dynamics to perform structure fabrication of the armored capsule incorporated in Force Protection’s Cougar medium mine-protected vehicle. The Cougar has been deployed since 2004 in the global war on terrorism. It was first used by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah, and is now used by all branches of U.S. armed services due to its unmatched safety record in the field.
20 Dec 06. Joint venture snares US Army linguist contract. In a major contract award, joint venture partners DynCorp International and McNeil Technologies have beaten the incumbent supplier to win a massive US Army contract for interpretation and translation services. The army linguistic services contract, which provides translators and linguists in support of military operations in Iraq, is currently held by L-3 Communications, which assumed the contract after its acquisition in 2005 of Titan Corporation. That contract expires on 9 March. (Source: Jane’s Defence Weekly)