MILITARY VEHICLE NEWS

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11 Dec 08. As the U.S. military moves forward with industry proposals for the next generation of lighter, more mobile Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, Navistar Defense, LLC was awarded 400 additional MaxxPro™ Dash units Wednesday designed for urgent operations in Afghanistan. Navistar will complete delivery of all 400 units while the testing and evaluation of vehicles for the MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) program is underway. The U.S. military announced its M-ATV program in November. The company will also deliver a previous September award of 822 MaxxPro Dash vehicles a full month ahead of schedule at the end of January. Work on the additional 400 units is to be completed by the end of May. “The M-ATV is an exciting evolution of the military’s MRAP vehicle program; an off-road, lighter and more maneuverable vehicle with MRAP-level protection,” said Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “From the advent of MRAP vehicle program to today, Navistar continues to leverage our manufacturing and engineering expertise to quickly adapt our MRAP vehicle for the evolving threats in theater; it’s our core strength.” The contract for 400 MaxxPro Dash units is valued at $362m. Production of the units will begin at the company’s West Point, Miss., plant in late January, shortly after the company completes delivery of the original 822 units. The company also is dedicated to the sustainment of all its MaxxPro vehicles and will support the renewal of field service representatives (FSRs) in Iraq and Afghanistan with last week’s $53.6m contract award from the U.S. Marines. The award will also be used to provide parts, engineering enhancements and FSR publications needed for MaxxPro vehicles in theater.

17 Dec 08. Nexter Systems and Panhard were two of the defense companies expected to benefit from an accelerated investment plan in the defense sector, as part of a larger economic reflation package, the French Defense Ministry said. Defense minister Hervé Morin announced Dec. 5 that the defense ministry would
contribute 2.3bn euros ($3.3bn) of a 26bn euro national reflation package announced the previous day by president Nicolas Sarkozy in Douai, northern France, to counter the economic crisis. A defense analyst said the defense investment plan was “window dressing” as no new money was available and the items were already due to be ordered or delivered. To flag up the defense investments, Morin was due to visit the headquarters of Panhard on Dec. 18 at Marolles-en-Hurepoix in the suburbs, following a decision to speed up deliveries of the armored vehicle maker’s PVP small protected vehicle. Under the new schedule, Panhard would deliver 250 PVPs a year in 2009 and the same number in 2010, or an annual extra 100 units compared to the 150 planned in the 2009-14 military budget law. A PVP costs around 125,000 euros. Nexter was expected to deliver around 100 VBCI armored personnel carriers in 2009 and again the same number in 2010. That was the contracted delivery schedule but the military budget law had reduced and stretched out deliveries o