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US Army's AMPV Variants Report to Congress Due Soon
Dec. 15, 2014 - 10:26AM | By JOE GOULD | Comments
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The US Army is planning to report a study to Congress next month that would impact the debate over ambulance and command variants for the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle (AMPV), due to replace the M113 infantry carriers.
The US Army is planning to report a study to Congress next month that would impact the debate over ambulance and command variants for the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle (AMPV), due to replace the M113 infantry carriers. (Army)
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WASHINGTON — The US Army is planning to report a study to Congress next month that would impact the debate over ambulance and command variants for the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle (AMPV), due to replace the M113 infantry carriers.

The Army’s Congressionally-mandated study on the topic follows behind-the-scenes wrangling between BAE Systems, which makes the tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and General Dynamics Land Systems, which makes the wheeled Stryker, over whether the fleet of M113 replacements will be tracked or have some wheeled variants for airborne combat brigade team (ABCT) ambulances and echelons-above-brigade (EAB).

The study, ongoing as of Dec. 11, is intended to “support future capability development efforts,” and will “identify specific capability gaps, similarities and differences between mission roles” of EAB units and airborne brigade units that utilize the M-113, said Matthew Bourke, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is due to report its findings on the mixed fleet issue to Army operations officials and senior Army leadership in early January, and to Congress by Jan. 30.

The study was ordered following proposed language for the 2015 Defense authorization bill that would limit the program’s funding to 80 percent until the secretary of the Army reports to Congress on the feasibility of wheeled variants.

The Defense Acquisition Board was scheduled to consider advancing the AMPV program into development on Dec. 9, with a contract award possible before year’s end, Inside the Army reported. The AMPV’s milestone B decision was previously scheduled for Nov. 5 and then Dec. 1.

The Army expects to field 2,897 AMPVs to armored brigades, for an projected program cost of $10.23 billion. There would be five variants among the 129 AMPVs planned for an armored brigade, of which 31 would be for medical evacuation.

The Army’s request for proposals issued a year ago stipulated a five-year engineering contract worth $458 million to a single contractor for 29 prototypes. Starting in 2020, its three years of low rate initial production options.

GDLS pulled out of the competition in May 2014, and it has since argued it was unfair of the Army to provide BAE’s Bradley to other vendors to use as they develop their own AMPV design proposals as a means of cutting program costs.

Behind the scenes, GDLS has lobbied Congress on the merits of the its wheeled Stryker for the two variants, arguing that in Iraq, the Army deployed the Stryker medical evacuation vehicles with some heavy brigades, and that it can respond to 96 percent of the program’s requirements for off-road mobility. ■

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The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $235 million contract to continue building MK 41 Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) with options that, if exercised, would increase the value to $356 million. The VLS fires a wide range of missiles, primarily off of U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers.

Since the first launcher rolled off of the Lockheed Martin production line in 1984, the systems have been combat proven with more than 3,800 successful firings worldwide, deployment by the U.S. and 12 allied navies on nearly 200 ships representing 21 ship classes.

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Rheinmetall has won a multimillion-dollar ammunition contract from the US armed forces. The Department of the Navy recently announced the award of three framework contracts worth a total of $127.8 million (€95.7 million) to American Rheinmetall Munitions, Inc. (ARM) – a wholly owned US subsidiary of Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence AG – for advanced infantry and screening smoke munitions.

The three framework contracts, one for the M1110 40 x 46mm day/night training cartridge and two for 66mm vehicle-launched screening smoke grenades, are all five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts running through FY 2019. In June 2014 ARM received delivery orders under these frame contracts totalling $26.2 million (€19.1 million). An additional $6.8 million (€5.0 million) in sales volume relates to a recent order for 66mm screening smoke munitions. As a result, the current volume of incoming orders under these framework contracts now comes to $33.0 million (€24.2 million). Future ammunition purchases will also be booked as incoming orders in the respective fiscal year. The 40mm ammunition ordered by the US military will be produced at the American Rheinmetall Munitions plant in Camden, Arkansas, with the first deliveries scheduled to take place in mid FY 2015. Production of the 66mm grenades ordered by both the USMC and the US Navy will take place at the Rheinmetall factory in Neuenburg, Germany.

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Sea Waves said:

Baltimore December 15, 2014 - The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $235 million contract to continue building MK 41 Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) with options that, if exercised, would increase the value to $356 million.

The VLS fires a wide range of missiles, primarily off of U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers. Since the first launcher rolled off of the Lockheed Martin production line in 1984, the systems have been combat proven with more than 3,800 successful firings worldwide, deployment by the U.S. and 12 allied navies on nearly 200 ships representing 21 ship classes.

"We are proud to continue building these launchers and bring this significant capability to the U.S. Navy for its critical missions as we have for 32 years," said Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ships and Systems at Lockheed Martin. "The fact that the VLS can launch any type of missile from any cell brings unparalleled flexibility in addressing threats from land, air and sea."
Under this contract which extends through 2022, Lockheed Martin will produce the launch control units, various electrical boxes and the mechanical structure, and perform final assembly and test. The company is also under contract to conduct repairs, distribute, store and manage spare parts for the MK 41 system for the U.S. Navy.
Work will be performed primarily in Baltimore, Md.

MK 41 VLS is the only launching system that can simultaneously accommodate the weapon control system and the missiles of every warfighting mission area--anti-aircraft, anti-surface, antisubmarine and land attack. The system is designed to accept any missile into any cell.

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The US Air Force (USAF) has approved full-rate production (FRP) for the Lockheed Martin AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range (JASSM-ER), the company announced on 15 December.

The USAF received the autonomous, stealthy cruise missile into its arsenal early this year following Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) flight testing in 2013. The low-rate initial production (LRIP) lots 11 and 12 of the JASSM contract awarded in December 2013 included 100 ER missiles; LRIP 13 and 14 are still being negotiated but are expected to include more than 100 ER missiles, company spokeswoman Melissa Hilliard told IHS Jane's . Lockheed Martin's production line can accommodate up to 360 missiles per year and is expected to begin doing so in 2017, she said.

JASSM-ER has more than two-and-a-half times the range of the baseline AGM-158A JASSM, meaning it can be launched from outside of defended airspace and the coverage of long-range surface-to-air missiles, and is intended for use against high-value, well-fortified, fixed and re-locatable targets. The baseline JASSM has a range in excess of 200 n miles, is powered by a Teledyne turbojet engine, and carries a WDU-42B (J-1000) 1,000-lb-class blast fragmentation/penetrating warhead. The JASSM-ER is powered by the Williams International F107-WR-105 turbofan engine, but is otherwise identical. It has a range of about 500 n miles.
Both variants use a combination of inertial navigation and GPS to navigate to the target area while allowing an infrared seeker to provide terminal homing. The infrared seeker allows the weapon to find its target even in areas where GPS signals are jammed.

The baseline JASSM is integrated on the Boeing (Rockwell) B-1, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Boeing F-15E Eagle, and internationally, on the Royal Australian Air Force's Boeing F/A-18A/B Super Hornet. The JASSM-ER is integrated only on the B-1B Lancer, but there are efforts under way for F-15E, F-16, and B-52 integration.

COMMENT

As the Pentagon shifts emphasis from the Middle East to the Pacific, the JASSM-ER combined with the B-1 is seen as a crucial weapon for providing combatant commanders the ability to hold at risk targets behind sophisticated air defences from long ranges. The stealthy, supersonic B-1 will be able to carry up to 24 JASSM-ERs; twice the number of baseline JASSMs carried by the B-52. JASSM releases can be either mission planned against fixed targets or retargeted dynamically in flight with waypoints, a feature unique to the B-1.

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Jeff Head said:

More on the Lockheed Martin Mk 41 VLS contract:

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The Mk 41 is by far and away...by orders of magnitude, the most widely used VL System on the planet. it really has become a standard for VLS. The US, Australia, Canada, Japan, denmak, Germany, the Netheralnd, Norway, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and Turkey all use the Mk 41 system. It has systems for 8 cell, 16 cell, 32 cell and 64 cell in use all over the world.

Even though a newer system exists, the Mk 57 by Raytheon which is the Perivperal Vertical Launch System (PVLS)...right jnow, and for the foresseable future, Mk 41 is by far amnd away what is needed and being built. The Zumwalts are using the Mk 57, but there will only be three of those ships and there is no new combatant design right now for more of them. The large ship that will be based on the San Antonio Class LPD hull and used for the large DBR will most certainly use them if it is ever approved, and I expect the future destroyer and cruiser vessels will use ythe Mk 57 system too.

But with the Burkes continuing as they are, and with so many foreign nations continuing to build to that standard, it will be the Mk 41 for a while longer yet.

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FORBIN said:

Sounds like good also for some new FFG...

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HMS Astute said:

What about FREMMs? Can they not launch the missiles like Tomahawk, LRASM, ASROC and CAMM etc expected to fit on GCS?

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Despite these apparent cost discrepancies, the Navy plans to buy 44 ships between 2015 and 2019 and an additional 220 ships through 2044 – totaling 264 ships over 30 years.

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