Each of the competitors to build a potential $1 billion-plus fleet of armoured off-road vehicles for Afghanistan and elsewhere has advanced to the next stage, and a winner is due to be picked in two months, the US Defence Department said on Friday.
Five separate contracts were awarded on Thursday, each calling for three more "production-ready vehicles" to undergo more testing before a production contract is awarded by the end of June, the department said. The government chose BAE Systems Plc to produce two MRAP All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV) versions, one from its Global Tactical Systems business unit and the other from its US Combat Systems Unit.
Also advancing were vehicles from Oshkosh Corp, Navistar International Corp and Force Dynamics LLC, a joint venture between Force Protection Inc and General Dynamics Corp's Land Systems unit, a Pentagon statement said. The government plans to award a winner-take-all contract to one of the vendors, the statement said. The US Central Command, which runs US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, has said it urgently needs as many as 2,080 of the new vehicles.
"The lack of established roads and bridges in the Afghanistan Theater of Operations requires a lighter and more mobile vehicle than the current MRAP family of vehicles," the Pentagon statement said. MRAP stands for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. The Pentagon says the M-ATV will be a lighter, more manoeuvrable off-road vehicle that incorporates current MRAP-level protection.
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