USA — Upgrades for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles

BAE Sys­tems Receives $71.1 Mil­lion to Pro­vide Sup­port and Upgrades to Mine Resis­tant Ambush Pro­tect­ed Vehi­cles

ARLINGTON, Vir­ginia — BAE Sys­tems has received a $44 mil­lion con­tract mod­i­fi­ca­tion from the U.S. Marine Corps Sys­tems Com­mand to pro­vide field ser­vice sup­port and instruc­tor ser­vices for mine resis­tant, ambush pro­tect­ed vehi­cles. The com­pa­ny also received a $27.1 mil­lion con­tract to equip U.S. Army MRAPs with com­bat-proven Check‑6® ther­mal cam­era sys­tems that enhance mis­sion effec­tive­ness and sol­dier safe­ty.

“Our field ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives and instruc­tors are work­ing side by side with the ser­vice mem­bers who use and depend on these vehi­cles,” said Ann Hoholick, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of new vehi­cles and amphibi­ous sys­tems for BAE Sys­tems. “We’re there to share our vehi­cle exper­tise and to make their lives eas­i­er as they pre­pare to pro­tect us.” 

More than 200 BAE Sys­tems field ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives and instruc­tors are deployed to sup­port ser­vice mem­bers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Liv­ing along­side the sol­diers, Marines, air­men, and sailors gives them a unique per­spec­tive and abil­i­ty to sup­port their mis­sions. Work under this con­tract mod­i­fi­ca­tion also is being per­formed now on mil­i­tary instal­la­tions in the U.S. and will con­tin­ue until Decem­ber 2010. 

BAE Sys­tems’ Check‑6 cam­era sys­tem gives MRAP occu­pants day, night, and all-weath­er vis­i­bil­i­ty, enabling com­bat crews to “see” out­side the vehi­cle while remain­ing with­in its pro­tec­tive armor. Each sys­tem con­sists of an infrared cam­era and a con­trol box. Field ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives will install the sys­tems, per­form engi­neer­ing upgrades and trou­bleshoot­ing, and train U.S. troops to dri­ve and main­tain the vehi­cles. The com­pa­ny will deliv­er almost 4,000 Check‑6 sys­tems as upgrades to exist­ing MRAPs. 

“Before BAE Sys­tems cre­at­ed the Check‑6 sys­tem, sol­diers could­n’t see what was behind them with­out exit­ing the vehi­cle,” said Lila Hillin, the company’s Check‑6 pro­gram man­ag­er. “Check‑6 pro­tects crews by pro­vid­ing them with high-per­form­ing elec­tron­ic sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness that’s crit­i­cal in today’s com­bat environments.” 

The Check‑6 cam­era is com­plete­ly con­tained in the vehicle’s tail­light hous­ing and can be read­i­ly adapt­ed and installed on most cur­rent and future Army vehi­cles with no mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the vehi­cle struc­ture. A reli­able, low-cost rear-vis­i­bil­i­ty solu­tion, the sys­tem con­tains long-wave infrared sen­sors mold­ed into the hous­ings of the vehi­cles’ tail lamps. 

The sys­tem, cur­rent­ly field­ed on the M1 Abrams, Stryk­er, and the MRAP all-ter­rain vehi­cle, fits into tail­light hous­ings com­mon to more than 200,000 mil­i­tary vehi­cles. BAE Sys­tems expects to deliv­er more than 15,000 Check‑6 sys­tems for a total order val­ue of $147 mil­lion by the end of 2010. 

About BAE Sys­tems
BAE Sys­tems is a glob­al defense, secu­ri­ty and aero­space com­pa­ny with approx­i­mate­ly 107,000 employ­ees world­wide. The Com­pa­ny deliv­ers a full range of prod­ucts and ser­vices for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced elec­tron­ics, secu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions and cus­tomer sup­port ser­vices. In 2009 BAE Sys­tems report­ed sales of £22.4 bil­lion (US$ 36.2 billion). 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact 

Stephanie Bis­sell Serk­hoshi­an, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +1 703 894 3522 Mobile: +1 703 785‑7891
stephanie.serkhoshian@baesystems.com

Karen Spiller, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +1 603 885 2818 Mobile: +1 605 566 2090
karen.spiller@baesystems.com

www.baesystems.com

Text- / Bildquelle (source): BAE Sys­tems