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14 Aug 12. BAE Systems received a $306m contract modification to upgrade 353 Bradley Fighting Vehicles – one of the most survivable and reliable combat systems in theater. This production contract is in addition to $340m in funding the company has received to purchase upgrade materials for the Bradley program, bringing the full contract total to $646m. The upgraded Bradleys will be provided to the Minnesota and Pennsylvania National Guard units. The company will also provide upgraded vehicles for Combined Armed Battalions to the Kansas, South Carolina and Ohio National Guard units.
“Our Bradley Fighting Vehicle has served alongside Army Soldiers, helping them to accomplish their missions for more than two decades,” said Joe McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Combat Vehicles at BAE Systems. “The Bradleys we are producing today provide the National Guard with enhanced survivability and interoperability on today’s digital battlefield. Our team continues to produce a quality product on-time to meet the needs of the Soldier.”
As the systems integrator, BAE Systems will upgrade Bradley Operation Desert Storm M2A2, M3A2 and M7 Bradley Fire Support Team vehicles to Operation Desert Storm Situational Awareness (ODS-SA) configurations. The Bradley ODS-SA upgrade integrates the latest digitized electronics providing Soldiers with optimal situational awareness, network connectivity and enhanced communication hardware. Its proven durability and commonality of design reduces logistics burden, while enhancing battlefield performance to meet a variety of mission requirements in close-combat, urban scenarios and open-combat situations. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command and work is anticipated to begin in August 2012 with final delivery expected in April 2014. Initial teardown of vehicles as well as reset work for some vehicle components will be performed at the Red River Army Depot. This important upgrade work will be carried out by the existing workforce at BAE Systems operations York and Fayette, Pa. and Aiken, S.C. The contract contributes in the near term to maintaining an experienced and specialized workforce and the defense industrial base required to continue producing armored fighting vehicles for the United States Armed Forces. All combat vehicles in the Armored Brigade Combat Team, with the exception of the M1 tank, are manufactured by BAE Systems.
08 Aug 12. MacroUSA rolls out enhanced Beetle. MacroUSA expects to have a substantially improved version of its small Beetle unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) ready for market by the end of October 2012 and has unveiled improvements to its Armadillo V3 platform. Speaking at the Association for Unmanned Vehicles and Systems International North America 2012 (AUVSI), company Vice-President Chris Vilter said the new version of the Beetle would be slightly heavier than the original platform at 1.3 kg. (Source: Jane’s, IDR)
08 Aug 12. Tognum downgrades 2012 forecast after ‘macro-economic’ woes. German military propulsion specialist Tognum has lowered its forecast for full-year revenues after witnessing a significant deterioration in “macro-economic prospects” during the first half. Defence sales rose in the first six months as several contracts were concluded, but Tognum now expects to see a single-digit climb in overall revenues for 2012, having previously forecast at least a 10 per cent rise. (Source: Jane’s Defence Industry)
07 Aug 12. KBP shows wheeled and tracked Pantsir-S1 variants side by side. During the recent Engineering Technologies 2012 (TVM-2012) exhibition in Zhukovskiy, near Moscow, the KBP Instrument-Making Design Bureau showed the two basic variants of the Pantsir-S1 self-propelled gun/missile combat vehicle side by side for the first time. Thes