STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. -- The U.S. Army TACOM Lifecycle Management Command has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), $19 million in Stryker eight-wheeled combat vehicle-related contracts.

The first, a delivery order valued at $5.9 million, is to provide a brigade set of Stryker add-on armor slat kits and the associated hardware. Work will be performed in Lima, Ohio; Sterling Heights, Mich.; and London, Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2008.

The second is a contract modification valued at $8.1 million for Stryker contractor logistics support to establish a Remote Weapons Station (RWS) Block I spare parts pipeline. Work will be performed in Auburn, Wash., and will be completed by Dec. 31, 2006.

The third is a contract modification valued at $5 million for contractor logistics support to Stryker Brigade Combat Teams deployed outside the United States. The work is to be performed in Southwest Asia and expected to be complete by December 31, 2006.

Stryker, 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, is the Army’s highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation. Stryker operates with the latest C4ISR equipment and an integrated armor package protecting soldiers against improvised explosive devices, rocket propelled grenades and a variety of infantry weapons. Stryker’s current combined fleet operational readiness rate is in excess of 96 percent with more than 6.5 million miles accumulated through two completed Operation Iraqi Freedom rotations.

The U.S. Army placed its fiscal year 2006 order for 306 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles in April 2006. To date, approximately 1,500 Strykers have been delivered of the 2,575 armored vehicles the U.S. Army plans for its fleet.

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. Stryker Brigade Combat Teams have operated in Iraq since October 2003, demonstrating the value of a force that can move rapidly as a cohesive and networked combined-arms combat team.

General Dynamics
19.05.2006