BAE Systems Awarded US Marine Corps Contract for 600 RG33 MRAP Vehicles

Released on Tuesday, November 06, 2007

YORK, Pennsylvania - BAE Systems has received two new delivery orders from the U.S. Marine Corps totaling $322 million for 600 RG33 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. BAE Systems is currently contracted to build three of the five MRAP variants, and now under contract to deliver 1,462 Category I vehicles and 1,176 Category II vehicles.

Under the first delivery order, worth $278.4 million, BAE Systems will deliver 399 RG33 Category II 6x6 vehicles and 112 RG33 Category II 6x6 MRAP Ambulance variant vehicles. The second delivery order, worth $44.3 million, calls for the delivery of 89 RG33 Category I 4x4 MRAP United States Special Operations Command variant vehicles and vehicle sustainment Integrated Logistic Support.

"Our number one priority is protecting the lives of our troops," said John Swift, MRAP program manager for BAE Systems. "This contract for additional RG33 Combat Vehicles will allow us to continue production through the first quarter of 2008."

Production will be performed at BAE Systems' facilities, in York, Pennsylvania, Aiken, South Carolina and Sealy, Texas; Spartan Motors Chassis' facility in Charlotte, Michigan; and Demmer Corporation's facility in Lansing, Michigan. Deliveries are expected to be completed by March 2008 for the Category I RG33 4x4 vehicles, and April 2008 for the Category II RG33 vehicles.

This award, when combined with previous contracts, brings the total value of the contracts BAE Systems has been awarded on RG33 MRAP vehicles to $627.5 million. The total number of vehicles ordered to date is 292 in the Category I 4x4 variant and 843 in the Category II 6x6 variant.

The new vehicle design and production was accomplished in record time as a result of the company's expertise and long history of designing mine protected and mine hardened vehicles in South Africa and providing high survivability combat vehicles in the U.S. The highly survivable RG33 incorporates a monocoque V-shaped hull design and compound armor recipe that leverages knowledge gained in recent and ongoing conflicts. This allows the vehicle to be driven away after being subject to threats that would completely destroy normal vehicles and disable other mine protected vehicles.

More than 1,500 BAE Systems employees in the US and 400 in South Africa are producing vehicles with the support of suppliers in more than 30 states across the U.S.