BAE Systems Receives $313 Million Contract for Continued Research and Development of PIM

ARLINGTON, Vir­ginia – BAE Sys­tems received a $313 mil­lion con­tract mod­i­fi­ca­tion for addi­tion­al engi­neer­ing design, logis­tics devel­op­ment and test eval­u­a­tion sup­port to com­plete the Engi­neer­ing and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Devel­op­ment phase of the U.S. Army’s Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment (PIM) pro­gram. PIM is the lat­est how­itzer in the M109 fam­i­ly of vehi­cles.

BAE Sys­tems’ Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment howitzer

“The PIM pro­gram will ensure that the self-pro­pelled how­itzer fleet is sus­tain­able in the long term and pro­vides sig­nif­i­cant growth poten­tial for our cus­tomer,” said Joe McCarthy, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al manger of Com­bat Vehi­cles at BAE Sys­tems. “Since we built and deliv­ered the sev­en PIM pro­to­type vehi­cles last year, we have com­plet­ed all con­trac­tor tests, as well as Phase One of the Army’s Devel­op­men­tal Test. The addi­tion­al fund­ing that we are receiv­ing through this con­tract will allow us to sup­port the remain­der of the Army’s rig­or­ous test pro­gram and com­plete the pro­duc­tion plan­ning efforts in sup­port of the low-rate ini­tial pro­duc­tion decision.” 

BAE Sys­tems was award­ed a $63.9 mil­lion research and devel­op­ment con­tract in August 2009 to pro­duce five Self Pro­pelled How­itzers and two Car­ri­er, Ammu­ni­tion, Tracked vehi­cles. The sev­en pro­to­types were deliv­ered to the U.S. Army, on sched­ule, in May 2011. 

Work under this con­tract will be per­formed at var­i­ous BAE Sys­tems facil­i­ties, includ­ing: York Penn­syl­va­nia; John­son City, New York; Min­neapo­lis, Min­neso­ta; San­ta Clara, Cal­i­for­nia and Ster­ling Heights, Michi­gan. The con­tract was award­ed by U.S. Army TACOM and is expect­ed to begin in Feb­ru­ary 2012 with antic­i­pat­ed com­ple­tion in Jan­u­ary 2015. 

The Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment how­itzer uses the exist­ing main arma­ment and cab struc­ture of a Pal­adin M109A6 and replaces unique vehi­cle chas­sis com­po­nents with mod­ern com­po­nents com­mon to the Bradley fam­i­ly of vehi­cles incor­po­rat­ed in an improved and more sur­viv­able chas­sis struc­ture. PIM incor­po­rates a state-of the-art “dig­i­tal back­bone” and pow­er gen­er­a­tion capa­bil­i­ty and inte­grates elec­tric ele­va­tion and tra­verse dri­ves, elec­tric ram­mer and dig­i­tal fire con­trol sys­tem. The upgrade of the PIM ensures com­mon­al­i­ty with exist­ing sys­tems in the Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team, and reduces its logis­ti­cal foot­print and oper­a­tional sus­tain­abil­i­ty costs by replac­ing obso­lete components. 

PIM is equipped with the company’s enhanced on-board pow­er man­age­ment capa­bil­i­ty, rep­re­sent­ing the first imple­men­ta­tion of the U.S. Army’s On Board Pow­er Man­age­ment require­ment. BAE Sys­tems’ enhanced on-board pow­er man­age­ment solu­tion will dou­ble the elec­tri­cal pow­er of most mil­i­tary vehi­cles, pro­duc­ing 70KW, sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­ing the mis­sion effec­tive­ness of ground forces in theatre. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Shan­non Book­er, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +1 703 894 3545 Mobile: +1 703 967 3854
shannon.booker@baesystems.com

Source:
BAE Systems 

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