General Dynamics Awarded 70 Additional DURO Armoured Personnel Carriers for the Swiss Army

VIENNA – Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Euro­pean Land Sys­tems, a busi­ness unit of Gen­er­al Dynam­ics (NYSE: GD), was award­ed a con­tract by the Swiss Army for deliv­ery of 70 addi­tion­al DURO Armoured Per­son­nel Carriers.

The pro­cure­ment of these vehi­cles was approved in the 2010 Swiss Arma­ment Pro­cure­ment Pro­gram. Deliv­er­ies will take place in the fall of 2013. The vehi­cles will be man­u­fac­tured at Gen­er­al Dynam­ics’ facil­i­ty in Kreu­zlin­gen, Switzerland.

The DURO is a high­ly pro­tect­ed and mobile wheeled vehi­cle, capa­ble of trans­port­ing up to 11 sol­diers. It meets the Swiss Army’s require­ments for a vehi­cle that pro­vides troop pro­tec­tion and mobil­i­ty for mil­i­tary appli­ca­tions, as well as peace­keep­ing operations. 

Gen­er­al Dynam­ics has already deliv­ered 220 DURO GMTF vehi­cles to the Swiss Army, pro­cured through the 2008 Swiss Arma­ment Pro­cure­ment Pro­gram. The Swiss Par­lia­ment approved the pro­cure­ment of 70 addi­tion­al vehi­cles to increase the DURO GMTF fleet avail­abil­i­ty for training. 

The GMTF Armoured Per­son­nel Car­ri­er is part of the DURO and EAGLE fam­i­ly of pro­tect­ed wheeled vehi­cles in the weight cat­e­go­ry of up to 14 tons. In the GMTF ver­sion, the DURO is 6.90 m long, 2.16 m wide and 2.67 m high. With its mod­u­lar pro­tec­tion sys­tem, the vehi­cle offers very high bal­lis­tic, mine and IED pro­tec­tion. On the road, the GMTF reach­es a top speed of 100 km/h and man­ages gra­di­ents of up to 60 per­cent and lat­er­al inclines of up to 30 percent. 

The GMTF has high on-road and off-road mobil­i­ty. It has a 245 hp Cum­mins tur­bocharged diesel engine, an Alli­son 5‑speed auto­mat­ic trans­mis­sion, unique DeDion axle sys­tem with patent­ed anti-roll bar, tire pres­sure con­trol sys­tem and per­ma­nent all-wheel dri­ve. All vehi­cles are equipped with an air-con­di­tion­ing sys­tem and a NBC over­pres­sure sys­tem for enhanced com­fort and protection.

Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Euro­pean Land Sys­tems, head­quar­tered in Vien­na, con­ducts its busi­ness through four Euro­pean oper­at­ing sites locat­ed in Aus­tria, Ger­many, Spain and Switzer­land. With more than 3,000 high­ly skilled tech­ni­cal employ­ees, Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Euro­pean Land Sys­tems com­pa­nies design, man­u­fac­ture and deliv­er to glob­al cus­tomers land sys­tems, includ­ing wheeled (PIRANHA, PANDUR, DURO, EAGLE), tracked (ASCOD), and amphibi­ous vehi­cles and bridg­ing sys­tems (M3, IRB, MTB, REBS), and oth­er mil­i­tary goods. More infor­ma­tion about Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Euro­pean Land Sys­tems is avail­able online at www.gdels.com.