By Ann Roosevelt
General Dynamics UK [GD] and BAE Systems tomorrow will formally square off when they submit proposals for the potential $3 billion U.K. Ministry of Defence Future Rapid Effect System-Specialist Vehicle (FRES-SV) Block 1 competition, officials said.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it plans to award a contract by March 2010 for the priority Reconnaissance Block 1 vehicle, which is to provide a base platform for other related support vehicles such as repair and recovery vehicles.
The FRES SV would replace the aging Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle, first fielded in 1971, while adding new roles, a U.K. Ministry of Defence FRES microsite said. The Scimitar, produced by Alvis, now BAE, has moved with U.K. troops from the Falklands through Afghanistan.
FRES SV is to be comprised of three families of tracked, armored vehicles: Reconnaissance, Medium Armor and Maneuver Support. The vehicles are to be network-enabled and more survivable and deployable than the current fleet, with the ability to improve capabilities as technologies advance.
“Most certainly, we will propose for the FRES SV,” a GDUK spokesman told Defense Daily. “We will be offering the low-risk solution of ASCOD SV.”
The original Austrian Spanish Cooperation Development (ASCOD) vehicle was developed to replace aging Spanish and Austrian armored fighting vehicles. ASCOD SV is an evolution, developed by a team of British and Euoprean engineers, providing excellent superior mobility, protection and growth potential. GD has been testing some of the key components for its proposed ASCOD SV vehicle on actual vehicles, the spokesman confirmed, and intends to move production, after initial tranches, to the United Kingdom.
BAE is expected to propose the latest version of its CV 90 chassis with a British-designed turret, British-assembled vehicle. “We will use a tried and tested model to ensure the U.K. MoD has access to the information it needs to ensure operational sovereignty,” BAE campaign director Arne Berglund said in a statement.
The BAE contender for all the variants is based on the latest version of its CV90 chassis, sold to six countries, the company said. For the reconnaissance role, the chassis has been shortened and given a lower profile.
BAE has spent more than $40 million–not including the weapon system–on developing an all-new British-designed turret for the FRES SV. It features sophisticated sensor systems and a revolutionary 40mm cannon, a major technology improvement over the 30mm Rarden gun on Scimitar. It has mine protection comparable with main battle tanks weighing nearly twice as much. In addition, the system has considerable growth potential.
The BAE FRES demonstrator vehicle has already begun mobility trials and fired its weapon system.
BAE plans to minimize costs, meet the tight delivery schedule and align with the U.K. Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) Strategy published in June by using a low-risk manufacturing approach proven with all five CV90 export customers, the company statement said.
The MoD has worked extensively over a number of years to modernize its ground force medium-weight fleet. The FRES program has a checkered past that was heavily criticized. For example, in late February, the Parliamentary Defence Committee said in its Third Report–Defence Equipment 2009, “The FRES programme has been a fiasco.”
Since then, MoD has made major changes. On April 1, the FRES team was dissolved and elements were incorporated into the new Medium Armored Tracks Team (MATT), which consists of MoD civilians, military and contractors. MATT will deliver the FRES SV and other programs. MATT is part of the Combat Tracks group within Defence Equipment & Support’s Director Land Equipment.
Additionally, MoD changed priorities and shelved plans for a FRES Utility Vehicle in favor of the FRES SV due to necessities of current and future operations, after the GDUK Piranha 5 was provisionally selected as the preferred design for the Utility Vehicle in May.