General Dynamics’ (NYSE: GD) land systems business has received a potential $1.14 billion contract to produce and deploy up to 96 Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles for U.S. Army infantry brigades.
The award of the low-rate initial production contract came days after the Army completed the MPF middle-tier acquisition rapid prototyping stage and issued a Milestone C decision, marking the transition of the MPF program to the production and fielding phase, the Army said Tuesday.
In 2018, the service selected General Dynamics and BAE Systems to build 12 MPF vehicle prototypes each under the middle tier rapid prototyping contracts.
The Army expects the program to reach the first unit equipped status by fiscal year 2025.
Under the LRIP phase, the service will accept vehicle deliveries and carry out full-up system live-fire, maintainability testing, lethality, survivability, mobility and other qualification testing activities and initial operational test and evaluation efforts.
Brig. Gen. Glenn Dean, program executive officer for ground combat systems, said the Army will procure 26 vehicles in the first lot and expects the first production MPF to be delivered in “just under” 19 months or around December 2023, Breaking Defense reported.
Dean noted that the total lifecycle cost of the MPF program across a lifespan of 30 years is worth $17 billion and that the Army intends to field four battalions by the end of the decade with the “bulk” of the purchase deployed by 2035.
According to the report, the Army plans to acquire 504 units under the MPF program, which is the military branch’s first new design vehicle in over four decades and is part of the service’s Next-Generation Combat Vehicle portfolio.
