Defense companies in Michigan have received more than $60 million in new contracts or production orders this week for military ground vehicles — with most of it going to equip foreign governments.
Sterling Heights-based General Dynamics Land Systems won a $37.6 million single-bid modification to a previous contract to fund a coproduction effort on the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank in Egypt.
The company has had an agreement with the Egyptian government dating back to the early 1990s for the M1A1, which generally involves some component production in the U.S. and final vehicle assembly in that country.
In 2009 the U.S. Army Tacom Life Cycle Management Command in Warren approved a $45 million contract for GDLS to extend the Egyptian tank co-production program to December 2012. The new award through Tacom calls for co-production to continue through February 2015, with work performed in Sterling Heights and Cairo.
Tacom also awarded GDLS a new $10.8 million contract award for the contractor logistics support to maintain 140 military vehicles in Iraq, through March 2013, under the federal Foreign Military Sales program.
Charlotte, Mich.-based Spartan Chassis, a business unit of Spartan Motors Inc. (Nasdaq:SPAR), also announced this week it received a three-year subcontract order from BAE Systems Inc. to support continued production of the International Light Armored Vehicles, a variant of the mine-protected vehicle.
The subcontract award includes an initial order of 24 vehicles to be shipped starting in second quarter 2013, with a possibility for follow-up orders. BAE received a $9 million production contract last year on the ILAV, also sometimes called the Iraqi Light Armored Vehicle, which it produces in the U.S. and has shipped to several foreign allied governments.
In other Michigan-related awards:
- Tacom awarded a $6.8 million contract modification to Oshkosh Defense, a subsidiary of Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp. with a technical center in Warren, for procurement orders under the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, an ongoing trucks-and-trailers contract managed in Warren.
- MDT Armor Corp., an Alabama-based former subsidiary of Arotech Corp. in Ann Arbor, received a $30.8 million award for 220 new units by 2015 of the “David” urban light armored vehicle, which it traditionally supplies to Israel. MDT was part of the Armor Division of Arotech, until it sold the division’s assets in June to Tel Aviv, Israel-based Shladot Ltd.
