General Dynamics UK [GD] awarded Lockheed Martin UK
[LMT] a $1 billion contract to deliver 245 turrets for the Scout Specialist Vehicle (SV) scout reconnaissance variant, after GD UK won a $5.7 billion contract last month to provide 589 vehicles to the British army.
The contract includes designing, manufacturing, integrating and testing the turrets, all of which will employ 880 people at Lockheed Martin’s Ampthill site in Bedfordshire.
Photo: General Dynamics UK
“This contract reflects the significant investment we have made in our workforce in Ampthill and clearly demonstrates our ability to play a key role in the design and development of the armored fighting vehicles of the future,” Stephen Ball, chief executive of Lockheed Martin UK, said in a news release. “The award not only sustains a significant number of highly skilled manufacturing jobs at our Ampthill site but will also greatly benefit our U.K. supply chain partners with whom we will work to deliver this modern, leading edge capability.”
Alan Lines, managing director at Lockheed Martin’s Ampthill site, added that he hoped this contract might pave the way for other armored vehicle contracts in the U.K. or elsewhere.
GD UK announced its contract in early September, and the value was so large that even British Prime Minister David Cameron commented, saying “I’m delighted that on the eve of the NATO Summit, we can announce the biggest single contract for AFVs for the British Army since the 1980s. These new vehicles are testament to the world class engineering skills in South Wales and across the U.K., helping to create the Army’s first fully digitalized armored vehicles,” Defense Daily reported (Defense Daily, Sept. 3)
The program will consist of six variants: 245 Scout Reconnaissance; 112 command and control; 93 Protected Mobility and Reconnaissance Support; 50 repair; 38 recovery; and 51 engineering reconnaissance vehicles. The Scout family is designed with a common base platform, with a 70 percent commonality across all variants (Defense Daily, Oct. 16).
Lockheed Martin’s first prototype turrets will be delivered to GD UK for assembly onto the Scout SV hull in 2015, according to the company’s news release. The first vehicles will be delivered to the British army in 2017.