General Dynamics [GD] Land Systems and BAE Systems both said last week that they had completed successful Preliminary Design Reviews (PDR) with the Army of its Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).
General Dynamics completed its PDR Oct. 31, BAE completed its review the week of Sept. 23.
The General Dynamics-led team that includes Lockheed Martin [LMT], Raytheon [RTN] and Tognum America, Inc. was awarded a $439.7 million contract for the Technology Development (TD) phase of the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle Infantry Fighting Vehicle program in 2011. That contract was modified extending the period of performance six months into second quarter 2014.
In 2011 as well, the BAE and Northrop Grumman team received a $449.9 million GCV technology development contract.
As part of the review, the BAE PDR team conducted demonstrations to showcase the maturity of its solution, which the team said in a statement for Defense Daily, describes as a balanced design that maximizes force protection, lethality, survivability and affordability.
Additionally, several of the team’s subsystem designs were on display, many of which are well past PDR level of maturity, the statement said.
The Army’s overall goal for the program is to develop and produce an affordable and operationally effective Infantry Fighting Vehicle in eight years. However, the Army has yet to determine if it will move ahead on schedule, pending the larger budget picture, officials said at a recent conference (Defense Daily, Oct. 28).
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| PEO Ground Combat Systems, PM GCV |
The GD four-day PDR review was the culmination of many successful subsystem and component design reviews held from August through October.
During the review, General Dynamics demonstrated that the baseline vehicle design is affordable, reliable and compliant to all Tier 1 requirements, which must be delivered in the vehicle’s initial configurations, and on track to gain compliance to selected Tier 2 requirements.
The review established that General Dynamics’ baseline GCV IFV design has a reasonable expectation of being judged operationally effective and suitable.
“The team did an outstanding job defining a path forward for the customer on the program,” said Robert Sorge, General Dynamics Land Systems senior director for the GCV IFV Program. “The strong performance has put us on a solid path for building the automotive test rig, continuing the system detailed design and enhancing each of the vehicle’s key subsystem and component level designs during the remainder of our technology demonstration contract.”