The U.S. Army has awarded GM GDLS Defense Group, a joint venture between General Motors and General Dynamics Land Systems, a six-year requirements contract with an estimated total value of $4 billion to equip its new Brigade Combat Teams with the General Motors LAV III eight-wheeled armored vehicle.

"We are truly honored to have been selected by the U.S. Army to equip our nation’s brigades with the General Motors LAV III armored vehicle, said Harry J. Pearce, Vice Chairman, General Motors Corporation. "On behalf of General Motors and our defense unit, I’d like to commend General Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, for his vision to transform the army for the 21^st century into a more agile force through the use of wheeled vehicles. GM is proud to have partnered with General Dynamics and we share the army’s confidence in our products and people."

"This is a strategically important award for General Dynamics," said Arthur J. Veitch, General Dynamics Senior Vice President. "It is the result of a decision we made a few years ago to change our product offering to match the requirements of our customer rather than to continue to focus only on the products that we historically produced. As a result, we entered into a teaming agreement with General Motors which optimized the strengths of both companies to meet the Army’s transformation requirements. The success of that strategy can be seen with this contract award."

The Army requirements-based contract is to equip up to six Brigade Combat Teams, 2,131 vehicles, through a series of delivery orders starting this year. The initial delivery order will be for $61.7 million in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation; the second order for 366 production vehicles is worth $578.4 million.

The LAV III is a full-time four-wheel drive, selective eight-wheel drive, armored vehicle weighing approximately 19 tons. It can attain speeds of 62 mph on the highway and has a maximum range of 312 miles. The basic infantry carrier vehicle (ICV) has armor that protects the two-man crew and nine on-board soldiers from machine gun bullets, mortar and artillery fragments. The LAV III ICV variant includes configurations such as the reconnaissance, anti-tank guided missile, and medical evacuation vehicles and anti-tank guided missile vehicles, as well as carriers for mortars, engineer squads, unit commander, command groups, reconnaissance and fire support teams. The Mobile Gun System variant consists of a General Dynamics Land Systems 105mm cannon mounted in a low-profile turret integrated on the General Motors LAV III chassis.

General Motors and General Dynamics will share fabrication and final assembly of the vehicles among plants at Anniston, Alabama; Lima, Ohio; and London, Ontario.

GM Defense is a group of GM-owned business units engaged in the design and production of Light Armored Vehicles and supporting turret systems for military use around the world. The group comprises research, design, and manufacturing facilities in London, Ontario; Goleta, California; Detroit Troy, Michigan; and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland; and Adelaide, Australia. Operations within GM Defense have more than 50 years of experience in the design, manufacture, and delivery of a unique family of light armored vehicles. Those vehicles are in service with the United States Marine Corps, the United States Army National Guard, and with other military forces around the globe.