WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has chosen BAE Programs to supply its new Chilly Climate All-Terrain Automobile, choosing the contractor over an Oshkosh Protection-ST Engineering group.
The service awarded BAE’s U.S. unit and its Swedish enterprise a $278 million contract that features manufacturing models, spare components and contractor logistics assist, in accordance with an Aug. 22 firm assertion.
To switch its growing old Small Unit Assist Automobile, generally known as SUSV, the Army evaluated each choices in Alaska’s Chilly Areas Check Heart from August to December 2021.
The SUSV — additionally constructed by BAE Programs — relies on Nineteen Sixties and Seventies expertise and was final procured within the early Eighties. The Army plans to purchase 163 Chilly Climate All-Terrain Automobiles.
BAE submitted to the competitors Beowulf, an unarmored, tracked automobile that may carry individuals and payloads in both of its two compartments.
“Beowulf can traverse snow, ice, rock, sand, mud, and swamp situations, and may function in steep mountain environments,” the corporate assertion says. “Its amphibious characteristic additionally permits it to swim in flooded areas or coastal waters.”
The Army is the primary buyer for Beowulf, which relies on the BvS10 armored variant utilized by 5 European nations: Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, France and Austria.
The U.S. navy is more and more specializing in its preparedness for the Arctic area. The Army launched its Arctic technique final yr, which stresses the necessity to modernize and ramp up the service’s presence as Russia and China proceed to say dominance within the area.
The technique outlines how the Army will generate, practice, manage and equip its forces to companion with allies, safe nationwide pursuits and keep regional stability.
Earlier this yr, the Army introduced it can reactivate the eleventh Airborne Division in Alaska and take away Stryker fight automobiles from the pressure construction there. And it plans to put in considered one of its 5 Multidomain Activity Forces within the Arctic.
Jen Judson is the land warfare reporter for Protection News. She has coated protection within the Washington space for 10 years. She was beforehand a reporter at Politico and Inside Protection. She gained the Nationwide Press Membership’s greatest analytical reporting award in 2014 and was named the Protection Media Awards’ greatest younger protection journalist in 2018.
