These are the Amphibious Combat Vehicle 1.1 Procurement Entrants

British Aerospace:

General Dynamics:

 

Lockheed:

SAIC:

link.

General Dynamics Awarded Contract for ~$500 Million Mobile Landing Platform-class ship

General Dynamics NASSCO has been awarded a $498 million contract to build the fourth Mobile Landing Platform that will be the second configured as a so-called Afloat Forward Staging Base for mine countermeasure (MCM) helicopters and special operations forces (SOF) and U.S. Marines, the company announced on Monday.

The ship — based on the hull of an Alaska-class crude oil tanker — will be built at NASSCO’s San Diego, Calif. shipyard and will be completed by 2018, according to a Friday Department of Defense contract announcement.

“Under this option, NASSCO will provide the detail design and construction efforts to build the second AFSB of the Mobile Landing Platform-class ships,” read a statement from NASSCO.

The contract modification that funds the construction follows the first AFSB — USNS Lewis B. Puller (MLP-3/AFSB-1) — which was launched at the San Diego yard in November.

The 764-foot ship will field large helicopter deck capable of fielding MH-53E Sea Dragon MCM helos and provide accommodations for up to 250.

link.

US Marine Corps Testing MUTT Unmanned Ground Vehicle

The Marine Corps is testing a tethered unmanned vehicle designed to follow human movement, carry supplies and perform a wide range of possible missions for forces on-the-move, industry officials said Sept. 24 at the Corps’ Modern Day Marine symposium, Quantico, Va.

General Dynamics Land Systems has developed the Multi-Utility Tactical Transport, or MUTT – a 54-inch wide, five-foot long, 750-pound four-wheeled amphibious unmanned vehicle engineered to help dismounted infantry units.

The MUTT, which can drive on wheels or tracks, can transport on-board an MV-22 Osprey, developers said.

“MUTT can help lighten the load. It can perform casualty evacuations and it can carry counter-IED components or communications packages. It is really multi-utility,” said John Rash, business development, General Dynamics Land Systems.

The Marine Corps recently conducted operations with two MUTTs at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., Rash added. One of the MUTTs carried communications equipment and the other helped lighten the load for dismounted Marines by carrying supplies.

link.

General Dynamics Drops out of US Army's Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle Procurement

“And then there was one.” General Dynamics said today it will not bid for the Army’s largest combat vehicle program, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle. Nor will GD take the government to court to try to change the terms of the competition, despite having denounced them as intolerably tilted towards competitor BAE Systems and protested, unsuccessfully, to the Army. With bids due today, this double withdrawal on both the business and legal fronts leaves BAE unchallenged.

Congress could potentially intervene, although so far it’s taken mostly symbolic action; the Army could theoretically have a last minute change of heart, though that’s surpassingly unlikely; or AMPV could ultimately get cancelled altogether, which is all too plausible given the budget cuts known as sequestration and the Army’s track record of cancelled programs. But the odds now are that the service’s thousands of aging, vulnerable M113s will be replaced in a range of support roles, from troop carrier to armored ambulance to mobile command post, by a turretless variant of BAE’s Bradley, already the Army’s mainstay combat vehicle.

link.

A-12 Avenger II Lawsuit Settled: US Navy Gets Three EF/A-18G Growlers and $198 Million Towards USS Zumwalt Class Destroyer

After more than two decades and numerous attempts at a settlement, the U.S. government finally agreed to accept $400 million from General Dynamics and Boeing in the dispute over the Navy's cancellation of the $4.8 billion A-12 Avenger II program.

The settlement is a fraction of what the government sought when the lawsuit began, demanding $1.3 billion in restitution ($2.2 billion in 2014 dollars) for money spent on the stealthy carrier-based aircraft program that had yet to deliver an aircraft. And it is even smaller when compared with an agreement for $2.9 billion that was nearly negotiated in 2003.

On Jan. 24, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed the case, as requested by the Navy and contractors involved. Late last year, the government reached an agreement with Boeing and General Dynamics.

The Navy will receive three EA-18G Growlers that will be delivered on top of the 21 Boeing aircraft that were funded by Congress for fiscal 2014 and are expected to be delivered in 2016, according to the Navy.

General Dynamics will provide $198 million in credits to the Navy toward the design, construction and delivery portions of the Zumwalt-class DDG-1000 destroyer.

“We are closing a 23-year-long chapter in the annals of naval aviation and further strengthening, through the contractors' in-kind payment, the Navy's capabilities and capacities,” said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

link.