Industry Teams Submit Proposals For Army Ground Combat Vehicle

By Ann Roosevelt

Teams led by BAE Systems, General Dynamics [GD], and SAIC [SAI], have submitted proposals for the Army’s Technology Development phase of the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) program.

The GCV is the Army’s modernization effort to replace the terminated Manned Ground Vehicle portion of the Future Combat Systems.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) closed May 21, and marks the beginning of the formal source selection process that is expected to culminate with as many as three competitive contract awards late in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.

“We have had good response from industry and now the source selection process will begin immediately,” said Col. Bryan McVeigh, program manager GCV, in an Army statement. “Due to the sensitive nature of this procurement and the Federal prohibition on the release of procurement information, the program office will not release further source selection details until the close of the process.”

The 27-month GCV TD phase is to complete the preliminary design, mature technologies through subsystem demonstrators, and inform the requirements process for an IFV that meets Army requirements for operations in a contemporary threat environment, ahead of a Milestone B review in 2013.

The General Dynamics team includes Lockheed Martin [LMT], Raytheon [RTN] and MTU Detroit Diesel.

BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC] have teamed and submitted a proposal.

SAIC would be the prime contractor on a team including Boeing [BA], and German firms Krauss–Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. (KMW) and Rheinmetall AG, an industry source said. The team will deliver a vehicle based on the KMW Puma, now in full-rate production for the German army.

Donald Kotchman, senior program director for General Dynamics Land Systems, said: “The General Dynamics team’s design is grounded in a focus on soldier survivability and operational effectiveness…Our design concept was selected to provide soldiers the comfort, connectivity, survivability, lethality and growth potential necessary to adapt to the fluid conditions of a contemporary battlefield and address the spectrum of operations from hybrid/irregular warfare to conventional warfare.”

GD would be prime contractor with overall responsibility for program management, vehicle design and integration. It would also be responsible for soldier interfaces, vehicle structure and chassis, squad and crew environments, integrated survivability and safety, and distributed systems.

Lockheed Martin is responsible for the turret, lethal and non-lethal effects, soldier health management and embedded training.

Raytheon is the hit-avoidance system, indirect-vision and sensor integrator.

MTU Detroit Diesel is responsible for the propulsion system.

General Dynamics C4 Systems leads the network integration integrated product team.

The BAE -Northrop Grumman team will be the first combat vehicle designed from the ground-up to meet the current IED-threat environment, the company said in a statement (Defense Daily, March 2). The team’s GCV survivability will exceed that of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle and the enhanced mobility capabilities will allow it to effectively operate in urban and cross country environments.

Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager of Ground Combat Vehicle at BAE, said, “We have provided our customers with a proposal that meets their requirements, mitigates risk, will deliver on schedule and is affordable.”

Joe Taylor, Northrop Grumman Information Systems’ vice president for Ground Combat Systems, said: “As proven by our proposal, both Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems will exploit decades of hard won, hands-on experience to provide the warfighter with the most potent, fully integrated combat platform capable of prevailing on any battlefield, anywhere in the world.”

The BAE team vehicle will have an integrated electronic network capability and embedded intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. The design concept is based on mature technology and provides a low risk approach to a highly compliant solution. The advanced electronic network will also be adaptable to future network upgrades, the company said.

Northrop Grumman is responsible for the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for GCV.

The Army’s contracting strategy is in line with the new DoD 5000.2 guidance for competition, the service said. During the GCV source selection the government will review proposals and adhere to federal regulations designed to ensure full-and-open competition. The process also prohibits the release of information related to the proposals, companies involved, dollar amounts, details concerning the source selection.

The GCV EMD phase would run through the first quarter of FY 2016, and include delivery of the first prototype vehicle in FY 2015.

The Army is using an incremental development approach for the GCV, designing it for adaptability, modularity and scalability to adjust to and incorporate technological change.