The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, received the AMPV earlier this year signifying the completion of the Army’s first unit equipped for the platform. (US Army/Dan Heaton)
WASHINGTON — After a full-rate production decision delay, the US Army has moved ahead with its Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) program and awarded BAE Systems with a deal that could top $1.6 billion, the company announced today.
“Entering full-rate production is a momentous milestone in the lifecycle of a production program for both the US Army and BAE Systems,” said Jeremy Tondreault, president of the Platforms & Services sector at BAE Systems.
While the deal could be worth billions of dollars for the company, the initial buy is valued at $797 million, covering production on an unspecified number of vehicles designed to replace the service’s aging M113 armored personnel carrier (APC) fleet. The AMPV fleet includes five variants — general purpose, mortar carrier, medical evacuation, medical treatment and mission command.
The Army’s path to designing and fielding the AMPV has been riddled with delays and questions about production quality. Several years ago, the service even opted to rebaseline the program and move the production decision from fiscal 2022 to 2023 to provide the company with time to make production line improvements and ramp up numbers. Although that production decision was delayed further into the year than planned, the Army ultimately has decided to move ahead.
Service leaders began fielding the new vehicle this year and in March completed delivery of nearly 20 AMPVs to soldiers with the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., making them the first unit equipped with the new tracked combat vehicle.
“We did have a lot of struggles in the beginning, [but] we’re pretty confident now that the prime contractor, BAE, has worked through that,” Jim Schirmer, the deputy Program Executive Officer for Ground Combat Systems, told reporters in March. “They’ve been delivering on time for the majority of the past year and the quality problems that we were seeing early on have largely been corrected. So, at this point, we’re pretty satisfied with where we are.”
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