STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. --- General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, delivered its first two low-rate initial production (LRIP) Stryker Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBCRV) variants to the U.S. Army yesterday at Anniston (Ala.) Army Depot. General Dynamics will deliver 17 NBCRV variants during low-rate production, through March 2006.

The vehicles will be used for various tests and user evaluations through the fourth quarter of 2007. The Army is expected to make the decision to begin full-rate production (called “Milestone C”) of the NBCRV in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The NBCRV provides the Stryker Brigade Combat Team with the Department of Defense’s newest nuclear, biological and chemical detection equipment on the Stryker chassis. The NBCRV variant locates, marks and reports NBC contamination on the battlefield. It detects and collects contaminated material in the vehicle’s immediate environment on the move through point detection and at a distance with a stand-off detector. It automatically integrates contamination information from detectors with input from on-board navigation and meteorological systems. It also automatically transmits digital NBC warning messages to warn follow-on forces.

Stryker is a family of eight-wheel-drive combat vehicles that can travel at speeds up to 62 mph on highways, with a range of 312 miles. It operates with the latest C4ISR equipment as well as detectors for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In addition to the NBCRV variant, Stryker vehicle configurations include: the Mobile Gun System; medical evacuation and anti-tank guided missile vehicles; and carriers for mortars, engineer squads, command groups and fire-support teams. The vehicles have more than 85 percent common components with the rest of the 310 Strykers in a brigade combat team, which eases the unit’s training and logistics burden.

Stryker Brigade Combat Teams have operated with “historically high” mission availability rates in Iraq since October 2003, demonstrating the value of a force that can move rapidly as a cohesive and networked combined-arms combat team. The Army will have six Stryker Brigade Combat Teams by 2008. Stryker is the Army’s highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation. Significantly lighter and more transportable than existing tanks and armored vehicles, Stryker fulfills an immediate requirement to equip a strategically deployable (C-17/C-5) and operationally deployable (C-130) brigade capable of rapid movement anywhere on the globe in a combat-ready configuration.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 71,900 people worldwide and had 2004 revenue of $19.2 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation.

General Dynamics
13.12.2005