Final Armoured Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) RFP Released

The US Army has released a final request for proposals (RfP) for an Armoured Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), meant to replace the ageing M113-series armoured personnel carriers, as the programme appears to be inching forwards despite a looming budget crunch that is threatening major procurement efforts.

A contract is expected to be awarded late next year for a USD436 million engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase that would run from fiscal year 2015-2019 (FY2015-2019), according to the RfP, which was released on 26 November.

The final RfP keeps a similar EMD schedule for budgets for about USD22 million less than the most recent draft RfP that was released early in October.

The winning contractor would deliver 29 prototype vehicles for testing, and the RfP noted that the army "intends to have discussions with the winning offer or, after contract award, regarding opportunities to expedite EMD prototype deliveries, in an effort to accelerate the programme milestones".

Army officials are to hold a competition for the EMD phase 'cost plus incentive fee' contract, which is to include three options years of low-rate initial production (LRIP) worth USD1.2 billion - consistent with the draft request that was published in October. The RfP said that the LRIP contracts would have cost and performance incentives.

BAE Systems has said it expects to compete with a platform based on the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, and General Dynamics has said it may submit a variant - possibly tracked - of the Stryker wheeled combat vehicle.

link.