HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — BAE Systems this week showcased a third prototype version of its Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) mounted with a turret payload using the company’s new universal top plate, as it gathers feedback for potential future variants and continues ramping up production to nearly 200 vehicles a year.
Jim Miller, BAE Systems’ vice president of business development for combat mission systems, told Defense Daily on Thursday that after bringing an AMPV mounted with Elbit America’s UT30 unmanned turret to the this week’s AUSA Global Force Symposium the company is next planning to show a vehicle integrated with the 30mm gun turret used on the upgunned Stryker this summer.
“We came to this show thinking let’s do it again, let’s show something different,” Miller said during an interview on Thursday. “The idea is [showing] here is another thing we can do and how flexible this is for the AMPV.”
BAE Systems first detailed its recently developed External Mission Equipment Package (ExMEP) universal top plate last October at the AUSA Conference in Washington, D.C., unveiling a counter-drone version of the platform outfitted with the same Moog Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret that’s on the Army’s Stryker Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) platform (Defense Daily, Oct. 9).
Miller at the time said the modular top plate allowed for the rapid integration of new payloads and could open possibilities for future variants of the AMPV platform.
BAE Systems currently produces five variants of the AMPV, the Army’s replacement for its legacy M113 armored personnel carriers: a general purpose vehicle, a mortar carrier, a medical evacuation platform, a medical treatment vehicle and a mission command platform.
“We think we can put just about anything on an AMPV very quickly as a result [of the ExMEP], which gives the Army lots of options. If they want an engineering vehicle with a remote weapon system on it or if they want an air defense vehicle, it’s very easy to do. If they want some kind of rocket launcher…or it’s on a turret, we can make it work,” Miller previously said.
Since October, BAE Systems conducted a successful live-fire demo with the AMPV C-UAS prototype in November and then delivered a turreted mortar version of the platform to the Army for testing that utilized the top plate to integrate a Kongsberg and Patria 120mm weapon system (Defense Daily, March 8).
“That turreted mortar [variant] has got an autoloader. Everybody can sit there under armor and not have to go outside and be exposed to shrapnel or gunfire. So you have a vehicle that can fire rapidly, move to the next stop quickly and no one has to be exposed. That’s much more survivable,” Miller told Defense Daily on Thursday. “You could envision a time where the Army could say instead of building the current [mortar carrier] version, let’s just do the turreted [mortar] version.”
Miller said Army testing of the turreted mortar prototype variant is set to conclude this fall, while noting there are no plans to demonstrate the vehicle showcased this week with the Elbit America-built unmanned turret.
“This one is all about demonstration of potential and to get people talking,” Miller said.
At the Eurosatory global defense trade show in Paris this summer, Miller said BAE System will show the fourth prototype version that utilizes the top plate to integrate the same 30mm turret on the Army’s upgunned Stryker.
“We have allies that are showing interest in AMPV, so we’ll do the same thing there to show them the flexibility of the AMPV,” Miller said.
BAE Systems will then hold discussions following Eurosatory to work on plans for its next AMPV prototype idea that could go into testing, informed by feedback gathered to date and Army priorities, with Miller adding that such a vehicle could be showcased at the next AUSA Conference in D.C.
“We take all that feedback after a show like this and give it to our engineers, and we ask them, ‘Here’s a good idea, do you think we could do it?’ And then we decide if we want to prototype it or just do a demonstration like this [vehicle at Global Force]. A prototype would be something you go out to test. A demonstration like this vehicle is not ready for test. And then [we think about] could we get [the Army] to say, ‘This is good, let’s go fund it.’ So that feedback is important,” Miller said.
As BAE Systems continues on full-rate production of AMPVs, Miller said the company is now building on average about 14 vehicles per month as it works toward producing nearly 200 platforms in a year.
“Now we’re ramping up to those kinds of [production] numbers. It takes a bit of time to get there,” Miller told Defense Daily. “The factory can ramp up to that [197 vehicles per year] number very quickly. But, there are literally thousands of suppliers that we’ve got to bring on that path with us and that takes some time. And so, what we don’t want to do is rush and go, ‘‘Hey, we hit number,’ and then we can’t deliver the next month because the suppliers are out. So we’re on a nice ramp that builds it up slowly over time. So sometime next year we’ll be delivering those numbers and we’ll be able to sustain that and not worry about whether [a specific] supplier is ready for this.”
The Army has previously said its goal is delivering “a brigade and a half” worth of AMPVs per year, which would require BAE Systems producing around 16 vehicles per month.
Last August, the Army approved AMPV for full-rate production and awarded BAE Systems a contract worth up to $1.6 billion, and earlier this month placed a $754.3 million order for nearly 200 more vehicles (Defense Daily, March 13).
Miller said BAE Systems is continuing the transition to build 16 vehicles per month, to include working now on understanding where constraints may still exist with the supply chain.
“With that first attempt at [getting to] 16 vehicles this month, we’re seeing what we can learn from that…so we’re kind of starting a test case here. But we’re now going back and forth between being right on schedule and being slightly ahead of schedule. So we’re in good shape right now,” Miller said. “How far can we get it [to 16]? Can we identify any chokepoints? How do our suppliers feel about that? Can they keep pace with it? We think the answer’s, ‘No,’ for our suppliers right now. But we want to see these factors right now.”
Miller in March 2023 detailed efforts to expand production capacity for AMPV at its York, Pa., production facility, to include investing $250 million into the plant and moving assembly of M88 recovery vehicles and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers to its Anniston, Alabama facility (Defense Daily, March 31 2023).
“I think the pleasant surprise was how fast Anniston got up to the quality and schedule requirements. We thought the learning curve would take longer than it did. And the folks at Anniston really, really proved out how good they are. So we get these quick ramp ups and we’re pleasantly surprised that it’s ahead of schedule,” Miller said on Thursday. “So that was really encouraging because we’re putting the additional stress on them with moving the howitzers. But it’s a much more comfortable feeling because we know what they can do down there because they’ve demonstrated twice that they can move faster than we planned.”