Defense Procurement News
Ground Combat Vehicle Decision to be Delayed
Category: BAE Systems, Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Department of Defense, development program, Events, Federal Budget Process, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman Corp., SAIC, Services, U.S. Army | RSS 2.0
It is being reported that the Army has decided to delay the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) six months. This is being done most likely in response to the current budgetary situation with the potential sequestration cuts.
The Defense Department has done a good job awarding current contract options this past few months to get things on contract to limit the effects of sequestration on existing work. Unfortunately new contracts will be affected as there may not be as much money available to award later this year. GCV may be in that situation. Delaying it several months should get you into Fiscal Year 2014 with a better handle on what money you have and allow the budget to prioritize funding.
Sequestration may force across the board cuts in all defense appropriations and limit the ability of new, large contracts to be awarded for the remainder of this Fiscal Year.
Two teams of contractors were awarded development contracts by the Army for the M2 Bradley replacement in 2011. One of those designs will be selected to go into Engineering, Manufacturing & Development (EMD) and ultimately into full production. This may still be several years into the future. These were to General Dynamics (GD) and to a team of BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman (NOC). The bid by the 2 prime contractors on the cancelled Future Combat System (FCS) the last attempt to build a Bradley replacement, Boeing (BA) and SAIC (SAIC), was not accepted.
Photo from UNC -CFC-USFK’s flickr photostream.
