BAE Systems Contract For FCS Armed Robotic Vehicle Rises to $311.3M

ARV-Assault Concept In an Aug. 15/05 release, BAE Systems notes that it received an April/05 contract modification worth a minimum of $122.3 million for the Armed Robotic Vehicle (ARV) program within the U.S. Army’s $120+ billion Future Combat Systems program. This contract modification, awarded April 6/05, increased the total authorized value of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract from $189 million to $311.3 million. This could increase further to $320.5 million if $9.2 million in additional task orders are authorized. The semi-autonomous ARV is the largest unmanned ground vehicle in the Army’s FCS program, and will be an integral platform within platoons and companies in the FCS-equipped Units of Action. ARV is to be about the size of a large pickup truck and is intended to be highly deployable, either two at a time on C-130 airplanes or individually with CH-47 helicopters. It is intended to provide battlefield commanders with reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, as well as assault firepower capabilities. The vehicle is envisioned as having semi-autonomous navigation and mission equipment operations, with man-in-the-loop weapon fire authorization via the C4ISR network. In 2003 BAE Systems was selected by the FCS Lead System Integrators (Boeing and SAIC) to design and […]