$471M Contract Modification For Manned Ground Vehicle Transition Program

MILTECH

Illustration of the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems.

Santa Clara CA (SPX) Jun 22, 2005
United Defense Industries has been awarded contract modifications worth up to $471 million for the transition effort for Manned Ground Vehicles for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems.

United Defense was awarded the modifications to its previous Future Combat Systems (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) contracts issued in 2003 by The Boeing Company, the FCS Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) for the U.S. Army.

"United Defense, as part of the FCS One Team, is working to develop and field a family of highly deployable Manned Ground Vehicles that will be key supporting systems linked through the overarching network that will enable the FCS-equipped Units of Action to effectively complete their missions," said Raj Rajagopal, Vice President and FCS Program Director for United Defense.

These modifications augment the original FCS MGV contracts awarded in December 2003 for the development and demonstration of a family of MGVs for FCS. The current modification extends the contract period of performance from FY09 to FY12, and increases the total potential value to $2.57 billion.

The current modifications call for a transition effort intended to mitigate risk while accelerating the fielding of the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) increment 0 vehicles and providing engineering support for the FCS Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle (FRMV).

Overall program prototype quantities have been increased due to an additional quantity of Medical Vehicle (MV), Non-Line-of-Sight Mortar and FRMV prototypes. United Defense is scheduled to deliver an increment of NLOS-C prototypes by December 2008, and develop all MGV prototypes by mid-2010.

This modification calls for key technologies and selected component maturation to be accelerated to enable the FCS program to spiral out mature technologies for early deployment to the Current Force.

Under the FCS MGV contract, United Defense has responsibility for five MGV variants: NLOS-C; Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV); Medical Vehicle (MV); Non-Line of Sight Mortar (NLOS-M), and FRMV.

NLOS-C has been identified by the Army as critical and integral to the FCS-equipped Units of Action. The highly successful NLOS-Cannon system demonstrator has been undergoing successful live fire testing and mobility testing at Yuma Proving Ground, and recently fired its 1,000th round.

United Defense is teamed with General Dynamics to lead the MGV development effort, and has formed integrated design teams to develop and demonstrate a family of eight manned ground vehicles featuring a common platform design with common components and subsystems, with unique mission modules and all the variants linked together by networked battle command.

These new vehicles are to be significantly smaller and lighter than the systems they replace and are designed to fit inside a C-130 transport aircraft.

Within the common design team, United Defense has the lead for Crew Stations, Propulsion, Armor, Survivability, Active Protection, Countermeasures, Signature Management and Defensive Armament. United Defense also leads the software architecture and development environment across all elements of MGV design.

MILTECH

DARPA To Sponsor Evaluation Of The AMPAKINE CX717

Irvine CA (SPX) Jun 22, 2005
Cortex Pharmaceuticals has announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense is sponsoring a new CX717 study. Results from this study could help confirm and extend the positive findings with CX717 from the recently completed sleep deprivation study.

SUPERPOWERS US Warned Not To Ignore Chinese Military Advances	NUKEWARS Two Attempted Break-Ins At Russian Nuke Sites Thwarted: Defence Ministry Experts: N. Korea Nuke Talks Imminent US Donates 50,000 Tonnes Of Aid To North Korea U.S. Nuclear Experts Train Kazakhs
MISSILE NEWS Software For Joint Common Missile Seeker Passes Key Design Reviews India Tests Surface-To-Air Missile For The Second Time In Three Days North Korea Ready To Scrap Missiles: Government Official India Successfully Tests Surface-To-Air Missile	MISSILE DEFENSE US Asks Japan For $545 Million For Missile Defense: Report US Willing To Talk To India About Supplying Missile Defence Japan's Lower House Agrees To Let Defense Chief Order Missile Intercept Japan Aims To Start Missile Defense Development With US From 2006
AEROSPACE Europe's EADS Woos Pentagon With Alabama Tanker Base China Set To Mass Produce New Generation Of Fighter Jet Trainers EADS Faces Mounting Opposition To Entry Of US Military Market BAE Systems-Raytheon To Provide NextGen Mission Planning Capabilities For U-2	UAV NEWS Synthetic Aperture Radar May Soon Be Used For Reconnaissance On Small UAVs Northrop Grumman Reaches Technical Milestone For Maritime Global Hawk Program GlobeTel Signs Formal Agreement With NASA Smiths Aerospace Selected for Northrop Grumman J-UCAS Electronics
IRAQ WARS Analysis: Congress Upset Over War US Will Likely Begin Drawdown Of Iraq Force Next Year: General Commentary: Iraq: Vietnam Syndrome Strikes Kuwait Gets Multi-Billion Dollar US Military Contract	MILTECH DARPA To Sponsor Evaluation Of The AMPAKINE CX717 $471M Contract Modification For Manned Ground Vehicle Transition Program GPS-Based Fuze Expected To Triple Cannon's Accuracy ATK Under Contract For Counter-IED Program

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement