Uparmored Bradley Could Be Tough Enough For AMPV: Testers

[unhappycamper]

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/01/uparmored-bradley-could-be-tough-enough-for-ampv-testers/



Uparmored Bradley Could Be Tough Enough For AMPV: Testers
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on January 29, 2014 at 7:33 PM

Massive government documents typically hide some gold nuggets of information. In today’s report from the Pentagon’s independent Director of Operational Test & Evaluation, a famously tough grader known as DOT&E, there’s one detail that is going to make defense contractor BAE Systems very happy:

“Results from the third underbody blast test also demonstrate that the Armored Multi-purpose Vehicle survivability requirement is achievable with a Bradley-like platform.”

Why should BAE care? Well, because BAE builds the M2 Bradley, a tank-like troop carrier, and because they’re entering a Bradley variant in the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle competition. With the much heavier, more powerful, and more expensive Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) apparently in programmatic limbo due to budget cuts, the humble AMPV is the biggest game left in town for anybody who builds armored vehicles for the US military. That boils down to BAE and its competitor General Dynamics, which is offering a variant of its Stryker vehicle.

~snip~

The Army’s aspiration — more a hope than a plan given the current budget crunch — is to buy almost 3,000 AMPVs for $6 billion. BAE has to convince the Army that the Bradley design can be made survivable to have a shot at that contract.