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08 Nov 13. General Dynamics Land Systems completed a successful Preliminary Design Review with the U.S. Army of its Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) design on Oct. 31, 2013. The four-day review was the culmination of many successful subsystem and component design reviews held from August through October. During the review General Dynamics demonstrated that the baseline vehicle design is affordable, reliable and compliant to all Tier 1 requirements, which must be delivered in the vehicle’s initial configurations, and on track to gain compliance to selected Tier 2 requirements. The review established that General Dynamics’ baseline Ground Combat Vehicle IFV design has a reasonable expectation of being judged operationally effective and suitable.
“The team did an outstanding job defining a path forward for the customer on the program,” said Robert Sorge, General Dynamics Land Systems senior director for the GCV IFV Program. “The strong performance has put us on a solid path for building the automotive test rig, continuing the system detailed design and enhancing each of the vehicle’s key subsystem and component level designs during the remainder of our technology demonstration contract.”
A team led by General Dynamics that includes Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company and Tognum America, Inc., was awarded a $439.7m contract for the Technology Development (TD) phase of the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle Infantry Fighting Vehicle program in 2011. That contract was modified extending the period of performance six months into second quarter 2014. The overall goal of the Army program is to develop and produce an affordable and operationally effective Infantry Fighting Vehicle in eight years.
11 Nov 13. US Army awards Bradley drive system Phase II SBIR contract to Loc. The US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) has awarded a Phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) contract to Loc Performance Products, to continue an upgrade of the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle’s (IFV) mobility system. Under the contract, the company will continue development and evaluation of its recommended Phase I technical approach that enhances the drive’s torque capacity and also adds the quick driveline disconnect feature. Loc had developed three potential approaches for a future drive design under the Phase I SBIR award, which underwent testing to help TARDEC finalise a design approach that best balances cost, weight and performance for the future drive system. Besides offering 100% more torque than existing design and reducing energy losses by 20%, Loc’s gear technology is also claimed be capable of maintaining the existing vehicle interfaces, and providing the vehicle with opportunity for future growth. Designed to help the driver safely engage and disengage the driveline, the quick disconnect technology will also be available for insertion on current final drive, or as an integrated solution to a new and enhanced final drive. Loc Performance Products Product Development director Chad Darr said Loc’s technology is transferable for cost-efficient driveline upgrades on all military ground platforms utilised in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle’s (HMMWV) geared wheel hub, M1 Abrams final drive, and the assault amphibious vehicle’s (AAV) final drive. Loc Performance Products’ president Lou Burr said the company seeks to utilise the resources provided by the SBIR programme, with its expertise in providing thousands of high value Bradley fighting vehicle, M1, M88, M9 ACE and AAV vehicle final drives. The contract’s value and performance period remain undisclosed. (Source: army-technology.com)
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