The US Army has awarded BAE Systems a five-year sustainment contract for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) program.
The $600 million contract allows the developer to add new capabilities and technologies to the vehicle throughout its service.
“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,” said Bill Sheehy, the AMPV program director at BAE Systems.
Five AMPV Variants
The contract comes seven years after the army awarded the same firm a $1.2 billion contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) and Low-Rate Initial Production of the AMPV.
There are five AMPV variants: The General Purpose, The Mortar Carrier, The Mission Command, The Medical Evacuation, The Medical Treatment.
BAE is currently in low-rate production of the vehicle and has delivered “at least one of each of the five variants designed for the family of vehicles.”
Replacement of Vietnam War-Era M113
Under the army’s AMPV program, 2,907 AMPVs will be acquired to replace the Vietnam War-era M113 armored personnel carrier at the brigade and below level within the Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT).
The new vehicle provides “significant improvements in power, mobility, interoperability, and survivability for the ABCT over the legacy family of vehicles,” the BAE statement underlined.
A full-rate production decision of the vehicle is planned for the third quarter of 2022.