BAE SYSTEMS and General Dynamics [GD] Land Systems unit yesterday announced the two have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to work collaboratively to support the Army’s Heavy Brigade Combat Team modernization plan.
The modernization will upgrade, modernize and achieve commonality on BAE’s family of Bradley fighting vehicles and General Dynamics M1 Abrams tanks, the primary combat vehicles of the Army’s heavy brigades.
With Abrams and Bradleys expected to stay in the inventory until the 2050 time frame, the two companies will examine where commonalities can be found for vehicles that have different weights, size and missions, one industry source said.
The agreement, developed with Army’s encouragement, defines how both companies will work with the Army’s Project Manager for Heavy Brigade Combat Team, and the Abrams and Bradley product managers, to jointly translate warfighter requirements into capabilities through collaborative design and development of common solutions.
The agreement also establishes the basic process for collaborative specification and product development and provisions for the common procurement of material to support system evolution on both companies’ combat vehicles.
The MoA will allow the two companies to collaboratively examine the potential of common procurement or common avenues of integration, how to make collaborative decisions, determine the best technological approach, another industry official said.
“As the Army adds capability to the Heavy Brigade Combat Teams, they desire common solutions to reduce logistics burdens, to lower development costs, and to make Soldier training easier,” Mark Roualet, senior vice president and chief operating officer General Dynamics Land Systems said in a statement. “BAE SYSTEMS and General Dynamics have responded with an agreement that harnesses the expertise of the world’s premier combat-vehicle developers to provide our customers the technology and capability they require in the 21st century.”
Raj Rajagopal, president of BAE’s Ground Systems business, said: “This agreement is the natural conclusion of initiatives started under the leadership of Kevin Fahey, the Army’s Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems, to achieve greater commonality within the Heavy Brigade. It is a win-win for the U.S. Army, BAE SYSTEMS and General Dynamics, and illustrates how our partnership with the Army continues to evolve and apply best industry practices to the benefit of our customer and the American taxpayer.”
BAE and General Dynamics are also One Team partners for the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, primarily responsible for ground combat systems development. A level of commonality among the ground vehicles is expected.
This agreement will allow BAE and General Dynamics to leverage the work they are doing on the FCS program for application to current force vehicles.
At present, Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles are being fitted out with A and B kits as part of the Army’s Evaluation Task Force that will test and evaluating mature technologies from FCS that could be spun out to the current force. This effort is one of the things that encouraged the two companies to move to a broader application–the MoA, the industry official said.