General Dynamics Gets $33M Order to Supply Bradley Reactive Armor Sets

M2A3 Bradley
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General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Charlotte, NC received an order of approximately $33 million to produce reactive armor tile sets for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Bradley vehicles carry a crew of 3 (commander, gunner and driver), plus additional soldiers in some variants. Overall, the Bradleys fulfills 5 critical mission roles for the US Army’s Heavy Brigade Combat Teams: infantry fighting vehicle, carries 6-7 troops as well (M2); cavalry fighting vehicle, carries 2 scouts as well (M3); fire support vehicle (A3 BFIST or M7 BFIST based on A2-ODS); battle command vehicle; and engineer squad vehicle (EBFV, or M2A2-ODS-E).

General Dynamics’ reactive armor system [pdf] uses tiles that fasten to the exterior of the Bradley, allowing it to withstand direct hits from anti-armor munitions, such as all shoulder-fired weapons and most tube-launched, shaped-charge systems.

Reactive Armor Tile Set
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For each Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the armor tile set consists of 96 total tiles: 18 M3 tiles, 8 M4 tiles, 55 M5 tiles, 7 M6 files, and 8 M7 tiles.

General Dynamics teamed with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to develop the reactive armor application for the Bradley. The reactive armor uses an insensitive high-energy explosive.

Deliveries of the reactive armor tile sets are expected to begin in June 2010 and be completed in November 2010. Work will be performed at the General Dynamics’ facility in McHenry, MS, and at Rafael’s facility in Haifa, Israel.

The program will be managed from General Dynamics’ Burlington Technology Center in Vermont. The order is an extension of a contract awarded in 2006 by the US Army Contracting Command in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ.