BAE Systems has received another delivery order from the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC). Worth up to $90.6 million, the order is for the multinational company to provide the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) 58 RG33 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. SOCOM uses a special 4×4 variant of the versatile 22 ton vehicle.
“These vehicles have been in service with our forces in Iraq providing survivability against improvised explosive devices (IEDs), medium machine gun or small arms fire and mine blast protection,” says Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager of New Vehicles and Amphibious Systems for BAE Systems in the US. “The entire RG33 team is proud to be able to provide these highly survivable vehicles to support our troops.”
Work on the delivery order will be performed by the existing workforce and will begin immediately at BAE Systems facilities in York, Pennsylvania and Aiken, South Carolina; with assistance from Letterkenny Army Depot (LEAD) and Spartan Motors Chassis’ facility in Charlotte, Michigan.
Under a Public/Private Partnership Agreement, BAE Systems will work with LEAD to deliver the vehicles. Vehicle hull production will occur at BAE Systems’ York, Pennsylvania facility while final assembly, integration, and test will occur at the depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in September 2010 and run through December 2010.
Last week the MCSC awarded BAE Systems’ South African operation, Land Systems OMC a US$227.4 million order for 250 RG31 Mk5E vehicles. Although OMC is not part of the RG33 production programme, the vehicle was co-designed at the OMC facility and prototyped as well as tested in SA.
SOCOM already operated 259 RG33s. The US Army and Maine Corps operates a further 1426 4×4 and 6×6 variants, allof them purchased since February 2007.
