General Dynamics eyes Abrams updates

October 2, 2009 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Syndicated Industry News 

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army contracted General Dynamics Land Systems for technical support and lifecycle management for the M1 Abrams tank.

Army To Upgrade And Refurbish M2 Bradleys

In the 1980’s the U.S. Army upgraded their heavy units with the M1 Abrams tank and M2/M3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV). These vehicles have been upgraded over the last twenty-five years and saw service in Desert Storm as well as the invasion and stabilization operations in Iraq. There has been no new production of them for several years and since 2001 the Army has spent a great deal of money to keep the vehicles up and running.

BAE Systems was awarded a contract to repair and upgrade another 600 M2 vehicles. This contract is worth about $600 million over its full life. This is enough to equip about twelve battalions. Normally when the vehicles go through this process they are completely rebuilt and also receive any current upgrades available. At the end of the process basically a brand new vehicle is delivered back to the Army.

Work on this contract will be done in Texas and Pennsylvania. BAE Systems has been doing the bulk of this kind of work on the M2 for the last several years. The vehicles were originally made by FMC a company that has long since been merged and bought out of existence.

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