The T150F is a double-pin track system that improves performance and durability of M113 and other lightweight vehicles, BAE said in a statement.

"The new track system provides our customer with lower life-cycle cost, greater reliability and improved performance," Robert Houston, vice president and general manager of Readiness and Sustainment at BAE Systems, said. "It is our goal to supply products and equipment that help save lives and also provide great value."

Australia ordered its first M113 tracked vehicles in the mid 1960s for service in Vietnam. More vehicles were purchased over the years, reaching around 760 in 1979. About 520 remain in service.

The Australian Defense Department has split its APC requirement between the M113 and the Bushmaster 4X4 wheeled mine-resistant vehicle, made by Thales Australia, formerly ADI. Bushmasters are made at Thales's protected mobility systems manufacturing facility at Bendigo, Victoria, and the army has used Bushmasters in its Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

The army acquired its first batch of Bushmaster vehicles, 300, in August 2004. Delivery of the latest variants was in 2008 and Australia is expected to have more than 700 when final deliveries are made.

Many of Australia's M113s are in the 1960's M113A1 configuration that replaced the original gasoline engine with a 212-horsepower diesel package. Most now have a turbocharged Detroit Diesel 275-horsepower engine and many also have undergone repair and overhaul at around 15,000 miles.

BAE's latest upgrade win is part of Australia's ongoing, and sometimes, controversial upgrade program of the M113.

In June 2002 the government announced a $547 million M113 Major Upgrade Project. The next month the Liberal Party government announced a $223.5 million contract with Tenix Defense Land Division to upgrade 350 M113 vehicles to M113-AS4 configuration.

But a 2005 report from Australia's National Audit Office heavily criticized the management of the M113 upgrade program had bogged down. This included the three-year delay between project approval in June 1999 and signing the July 2002 contract. It stated that the November 2006 goal for introduction into service of the upgraded vehicles was unlikely to be met, as is the case today.

The upgrades continue, thanks to a Labor Party government announcement in 2008 of a $143 million contract for BAE to upgrade another 81 M113 units. BAE Systems' production line at Bandiana in northern Victoria will be kept busy until around July next year, as well as more work scheduled for plants in Williamstown, Victoria, and in Wingfield, South Australia.

The National Audit Office revisited the upgrade program in March last year, noting significant improvements in managing the program. However, only 42 of the 350 vehicles to be upgraded had been received by the army at that time and there is likely to be a shortfall of around 100 upgraded vehicles by December 2010.

Technical issues surrounding extending the hull of the vehicle have slowed down the work, the NAO said. Delivery of 350 upgraded vehicles by December 2010 was looking unlikely.

Work on the latest track system improvements will take place at the BAE Systems' Anniston, AL, facility and is expected to be complete in July next year.

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