By Ann Roosevelt
General Dynamics [GD] received an Army contract valued potentially at $326.5 million to produce Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS) variant vehicles.
The contract, issued by Army TACOM Lifecycle Management Command to GD’s Land Systems business unit, has initial funding of $145 million for 62 Stryker MGS.
The Stryker MGS is one of 10 Stryker variants fielding to the Army in Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.
Strykers are among the Army’s top 10 procurement programs and the fiscal year 2009 president’s budget requested $1.1 billion for the combat vehicles (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).
The MGS is a direct-fire infantry assault platform with a 105mm cannon mounted in a low-profile, fully stabilized, shoot-on-the-move turret and integrated into the Stryker chassis. It carries 18 rounds of NATO-standard 105mm main gun ammunition; 400 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition; and 3,400 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition. It destroys vehicles, equipment and hardened positions with its bunker and wall-breaching capability.
The contract comes after an Aug. 5 DoD procurement approval.
In February, John Young, under secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics chaired a Defense Acquisition Board review to determine the readiness of the Stryker MGS program for full rate productions.
Deficiencies identified during tests left Army Secretary Pete Geren unable to certify, without qualification, that the MGS was operationally effective, suitable and survivable for its expected missions, a DoD information paper said.
Geren requested the Defense Secretary approve a waiver. Robert Gates approved a National Security Interest Waiver July 15, and notified Congress. Due to that decision, Young then approved continuing MGS low rate procurement in fiscal year 2008.
However, due to the test concerns, Young directed the Army to take action to mitigate all the deficiencies identified during operational and live fire testing of the MGS.
Essentially, the test community found three things not on the list of requirements initially issued by the Army. First, the Army in coordination with DoD must come up with an armor solution to protect its vehicles against rocket-propelled grenades, different from the current plan. The solution would apply across service vehicles, including Stryker.
Next, the MGS should use the Commander’s Display Unit, and General Dynamics will use the same unit as in the Abrams tank–which GD also manufactures. This would offer tank crews some commonality between vehicles.
Finally, a mission equipment reliability package for air conditioning and heat abatement must be added.
The changes could be done in several ways, from cutting into production in 11-12 months, to three or four years off, or retrofitting MGS. It will all depend on funding.
A Configuration Control Board steering committee will meet and discuss the changes that Gates and Young direct.
For General Dynamics, the Stryker MGS work will be done in Anniston, Ala.; Sterling Heights, Mich.; Lima, Ohio; Scranton, Pa.; Tallahassee, Fla., and London, Ontario, Canada. It will be completed by February 2010.
The eight-wheel drive Strykers can travel at up to 62 miles per hour on highways with a range of 312 miles. The vehicles have the latest command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. They also have nuclear, biological and chemical weapon detectors.
In addition to the MGS, Stryker vehicle configurations include: the nuclear, biological and chemical detection vehicle; anti-tank guided missile and medical evacuation vehicles; and carriers for mortars, engineer squads, command groups, and fire-support teams.
The MGS has more than 70 percent common components with the rest of the 310 Strykers that comprise a brigade combat team, which eases the unit’s training and logistics burden.
Since combat deployment in 2007, the MGS vehicles have logged 79,000 miles, fired 600 main gun rounds, thousands of coax rounds and survived numerous insurgent attacks and improvised explosive device (IED) detonations, General Dynamics said.
The Army has seven Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.