BAE Systems yesterday said it received a $306 million contract modification to upgrade 353 Bradley Fighting Vehicles now in three different versions to one version, the Operation Desert Storm Situational Awareness (ODS-SA) configuration.
The production contract is in addition to $340 million the company has received to purchase upgrade materials for the Bradley program, raising the full contract total to $646 million for the combat systems.
The upgraded Bradleys will be provided to the Minnesota and Pennsylvania National Guard units. The company also will provide upgraded vehicles for Combined Armed Battalions to the Kansas, South Carolina and Ohio National Guard units.
“Our Bradley Fighting Vehicle has served alongside Army soldiers, helping them to accomplish their missions for more than two decades,” said Joe McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Combat Vehicles at BAE. “The Bradleys we are producing today provide the National Guard with enhanced survivability and interoperability on today’s digital battlefield. Our team continues to produce a quality product on-time to meet the needs of the soldier.”
As the systems integrator, BAE will upgrade Bradley Operation Desert Storm M2A2, M3A2 and M7 Bradley Fire Support Team vehicles to ODS-SA configurations.
“The majority of the active Army has the Bradley A3 configuration,” John Tile, director of Bradley Programs at BAE, told Defense Daily. “With this contract, most of the Guard will have the Bradley A2 ODS-SA configuration–and some have a few A3s. However, both the active Army and Guard still have several much older A2 ODS-Es.”
The Bradley ODS-SA upgrade integrates the latest digitized electronics providing soldiers with optimal situational awareness, network connectivity and enhanced communication hardware. Its proven durability and commonality of design reduces logistics burden, while enhancing battlefield performance to meet a variety of mission requirements in close-combat, urban scenarios and open-combat situations.
The contract, awarded by Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, begins this month with final delivery expected in April 2014. The initial teardown of vehicles as well as reset work for some vehicle components will be performed at the Red River Army Depot.
The upgrade work will be carried out by the existing workforce at BAE operations York and Fayette, Pa., and Aiken, S.C. All combat vehicles in the Armored Brigade Combat Team, with the exception of the M1 tank, are manufactured by BAE.