The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth up to $600 million for the sustainment and support of the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) over the next five years. The AMPV comes in five variants designed to execute a broad set of missions while operating on the front lines.

BAE Systems is currently in low-rate production for the AMPV program, and has delivered at least one of each of the five variants designed for the family of vehicles. This sustainment contract allows for adding new capabilities and technologies on AMPVs throughout their time in service.

«The AMPV family of vehicles will bring unmatched capability to the battlefield and has demonstrated outstanding survivability and force protection as well as flexibility and growth for the future», said Bill Sheehy, the AMPV program director at BAE Systems. «This contract award will not only support production, but it will also allow for future upgrades through the development and integration of new capability sets onto existing variants».

The system technical support contract establishes BAE Systems as the sole source provider for sustainment system and technical support, as well as post-production sustainment and support for the AMPV program.

The all-new AMPV is the first tracked combat vehicle built from the ground up for the U.S. Army in more than two decades. The highly-survivable and mobile family of vehicles addresses the critical need to replace the Vietnam War-era M113s, and provides significant improvements in power, mobility, interoperability, and survivability for the Armored Brigade Combat Team over the legacy family of vehicles.

The U.S. Army received the first Medical Treatment AMPV in December, marking the delivery of at least one of each variant to the Army. The first production AMPV was a Mission Command variant delivered last year. The other variants in the AMPV family include:

• The General Purpose vehicle, which operates throughout the battle space to conduct resupply, maintenance, and alternate casualty evacuation from point of injury;
• The Mortar Carrier, which provides immediate, and responsive, heavy mortar fire support to the Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) in the conduct of fast-paced offensive operations; and,
• The Medical Evacuation (MedEvac) vehicle, which enables immediate treatment or evacuation at the point of injury to either ambulatory or litter casualties.

The AMPV is poised to execute today’s mission while adapting technologies as they evolve for the future battlefield through its built-in growth space design. This includes the ability to enhance power generation capability to enable future electronic and network connectivity upgrades.

Work on the AMPV program takes place across BAE Systems’ industrial network, which includes facilities in Aiken, South Carolina, Anniston, Alabama, Phoenix, Arizona, Sterling Heights, Michigan, and York, Pennsylvania.

The first Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) has driven off the BAE Systems production line to be delivered to the U.S. Army.

The AMPV is central to the Army’s modernization objectives and comes in five variants to meet a wide range of missions across the battlefield.

«Finalizing the first AMPV for delivery marks a major milestone for the program and the U.S. Army», said Bill Sheehy, AMPV program director for BAE Systems’ Ground Vehicles product line. «The AMPV is designed to meet the Army’s missions for the Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCT), and lay the foundation for the future of the battlefield».

Identified by the Army as a top priority for safety and survivability, the AMPV family provides the Army with a highly survivable and mobile fleet of vehicles that address a critical need to replace the Vietnam War-era M113s and maneuver with the ABCT in challenging terrain on the front lines.

The Mission Command vehicle will be the first vehicle delivered and is the cornerstone of the Army’s ABCT Network Modernization Strategy. It facilitates digital mission command, taking advantage of increased volume, protection, power and cooling capabilities and provides flexibility and growth capacity for command, control, communications and computer capabilities.

The other variants in the AMPV family include:

• the General Purpose vehicle: operates throughout the battle space to conduct resupply, maintenance, and alternate casualty evacuation from point of injury;
• the Mortar Carrier: provides immediate, and responsive, heavy mortar fire support to the ABCT in the conduct of fast-paced offensive operations;
• the Medical Evacuation vehicle: enables immediate treatment or evacuation at the point of injury to either ambulatory or litter casualties;
• the Medical Treatment vehicle: is the first of its kind, serving as an «operating room on tracks» for life-sustaining care to Soldiers suffering from life-threatening injuries.

«The AMPV family of vehicles provides significant power, mobility, interoperability, and survivability improvements for the ABCT», said Jeremy Tondreault, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems’ Combat Mission Systems. «The AMPV has demonstrated outstanding survivability and force protection as well as flexibility and growth for the future».

The AMPV has built-in growth to add new capabilities as technology evolves, including enhanced power generation for advanced electronics, and network connectivity. This gives the Army a vehicle to execute today’s missions, with the ability to adapt to future technologies and capabilities.

The AMPV has completed nearly two dozen Army tests and has consistently met or exceeded all of its requirements.

Under the current Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) contract awarded in 2018, BAE Systems will deliver more than 450 of the highly mobile, survivable, multi-purpose vehicles. Work on the AMPV program takes place across BAE Systems’ industrial network, which includes facilities in Aiken, South Carolina, Anniston, Alabama, Phoenix, Arizona, Sterling Heights, Michigan, and York, Pennsylvania.

BAE Systems was awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion from the U.S. Army for the Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development (EMD) and Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) of the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV). The program aims to provide the U.S. Army with a highly survivable and mobile fleet of vehicles that addresses a critical need to replace the Vietnam-era M113s.

«This award represents a significant milestone for the United States Army and BAE Systems», said Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager of Combat Vehicles at BAE Systems. «The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle will provide a substantial upgrade over the Army’s current personnel carrier fleet, increasing the service’s survivability, force protection, and mobility while providing for future growth potential. It also confirms BAE Systems’ role as a leading provider of combat vehicles».

The initial award is for a 52-month base term, valued at approximately $383 million, during which BAE Systems will produce 29 vehicles across each of the variants. The award also provides an option to begin the LRIP phase immediately following the current EMD phase, at which time the company would produce an additional 289 vehicles for a total contract value of $1.2 billion.

The AMPV capitalizes on proven Bradley and M109A7 designs, meeting the Army’s force protection and all-terrain mobility requirements while enabling the AMPV to maneuver with the rest of the Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT). The maximized commonality within the AMPV family of vehicles and the ABCT will reduce risk and provide significant cost savings to the Army.

«BAE Systems built and demonstrated prototypes for each of the five variants in order to provide the best solution for the Army», said Greg Mole, AMPV capture director at BAE Systems. «Given the maturity of our design and the commonality both within the AMPV and ABCT fleets, we feel this offers significant opportunity to accelerate the program’s schedule».

The program is essential to the future of the ABCT and will fulfill the Army’s strategy of protection, mobility, reliability, and interoperability. The AMPV, which will be integrated with the ABCT, is required to operate alongside the M1 Abrams tank and the M2 Bradley. AMPV has been identified by the Army as its top priority for the safety and survivability of our soldiers, and therefore, must meet tough protection requirements. Compromising or reducing the survivability requirements would put soldiers’ lives at risk. This is where BAE Systems’ Bradley-based AMPV solution comes in.

BAE Systems’ Bradley-based AMPV is a mature, low-risk and cost-effective solution that rapidly delivers continued combat overmatch capability for the Army. The Bradley platform delivers combat proven mobility, survivability and force protection to fight with the ABCT formation. In June 2013, during testing by the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Directorate of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) their report identified that «the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle survivability requirement is achievable with a Bradley-like platform».

By the way, General Dynamics has argued that the Army’s request for proposals for the new armored vehicle favors BAE’s tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicle while putting General Dynamics wheeled Stryker vehicles at a disadvantage; nonetheless, the U.S. Army rejected all of General Dynamics’ protests on AMPV program.