PARIS–BAE SYSTEMS officials are looking to move past testing phases for two design vehicles in anticipation of two imminent award announcements for an expected Army contract for Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles to Europe and a final decision on the Marines’ Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) program, officials told Defense Daily Monday.
The Army’s order for up to 262 AMPV’s to be delivered for the European Defense Initiative (EDI) and the Marine Corps decision between BAE and SAIC [SAIC] to move forward with ACV effort are both expected this summer.
Photo: BAE Systems.
“All the testing is complete. We’re actually just on pins and needles waiting for the decision to be made,” Jim Miller, BAE’s director of business development for combat vehicles, told Defense Daily regarding the Marine Corps’ decision on ACV.
The Marine Corps selected both BAE’s SuperAV and SAIC’s Terrex in November 2015 for engineering and development testing.
Miller expects a final decision in the next couple weeks from the Marine Corps on moving to production between the two options.
The Army AMPV contract for EDI is expected to be a sole source award to BAE, after the company has already delivered 29 prototype vehicles.
Army officials released a justification notice for the sole-source award on May 31, which is expected to be a four-year contract with three follow-on options.
“All that’s coming. We’re going through the EMD phase, that’s what the 29 vehicles were for. Those were prototypes going through testing, and the success of that test will be the trigger to go to the next phase,” Miller said.
The limited user testing is also expected to be completed this summer, according to Miller.