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13 Nov 12. Lorica Systems UK Limited has been chosen by Lockheed Martin UK for final negotiations as the preferred turret armour supplier for the demonstration phase of the UK MoD Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) and is now in final negotiations with Lockheed Martin.. The WCSP program will provide a range of upgrades to the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle, with the aim of extending the vehicles’ service life beyond 2035. Lorica is an armour and survivability Joint Venture between Marshall Land Systems of Cambridge and Plasan of Israel. The key requirements of the project are to meet future threat levels and challenging weight targets, whilst demonstrating that armour can be effectively integrated to match the turret profile. Lorica specialises in a low-weight approach to flexible armouring solutions. The WCSP programme is ideal for their skill base.
08 Nov 12. Bradley Offspring, GCV, May Top 84 Tons, Heavier Than M1 Tank. What may weigh more than an M1 Abrams tank and carry 12 soldiers? The Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle. New weight estimates for GCV, released this week by the Congressional Budget Office, will likely go over like a lead ballon with the program’s critics in Congress and in the Army itself. Depending on the model and add-on armor package, an M1 weighs 60 to 75.5 tons. According to the CBO report, the General Dynamics design for the GCV weighs 64 to 70 tons. BAE s proposal is still heavier, at 70 to 84. (Source: glstrade.com/Aol Defense.com)
24 Oct 12. BAE Systems used AUSA to highlight continuing progress on its Hybrid Electric Drive Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). According to Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager for Vehicle Systems at BAE Systems Land and Armaments, the decision to employ HED on the BAE
Systems GCV received a great deal of initial attention – ‘both good and bad’ – as well as ‘a lot of questions about the maturity of our offering and the readiness potentially of the army to accept what a lot of folks believe is a radically new approach to propulsion systems for combat vehicles.’ Signorelli provided an overview of BAE Systems’ extensive involvement in the development of electric drive propulsion systems for vehicles since the late 1970s. Demonstration platforms have included M113s, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, the Lancer, and Future Combat System – and now GCV. ‘HED is not just a propulsion system,’ Signorelli said. ‘It’s a system solution for a combat vehicle. HED does a lot more for this vehicle than just provide propulsion. It provides electrical power generation and storage. It allows the integration of new technologies – and in the future new and more advanced technologies. And it allows us to fundamentally architect a different combat vehicle than you could with a conventional mechanical drive system.’ Citing a laundry list of design benefits, tactical system performance benefits and reliability benefits from the HED, Signorelli outlined several activities being conducted to further reduce risk during the ‘relatively short’ technology development (TD) phase of the GCV programme. One example is the use of a ‘hot buck’ full mockup of the propulsion system in a static environment in lieu of a traditional automotive test rig (ATR). ‘Our objective was to get 2,000 miles of testing on the fully integrated propulsion system by the end of the TD phase,’ he said. ‘I think anybody who has been involved with a ground vehicle programme knows that’s pretty aggressive and unlikely that we could achieve that using an ATR. So we put together the “hot buck”. It’s a full representation of the propulsion system. The only things not represented are the final drives. We hook the drive shafts directly to the dynamometers and drive them rather than driving through the final drives.