Stryker Mobile Gun System Enters Army Testing
System Moving Towards Fall Production Decision
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – The Stryker Mobile Gun System entered U.S. Army product qualification testing this week at Aberdeen Test Center, Maryland. Successful completion of product qualification testing is a prerequisite to entering low rate initial production, which the Army is expected to authorize for the gun system in the fourth quarter of 2003.
General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) delivered seven pre-production Stryker Mobile Gun Systems to the U.S. Army between July and December 2002; an eighth mobile gun will be delivered this month. These are part of a $4 billion order awarded in November 2000 to a joint venture between GM Defense and General Dynamics Land Systems to equip the Army’s new Stryker Brigade Combat Teams with 2,131 Stryker armored vehicles. In December, General Dynamics announced its intention to acquire GM Defense; that acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2003.
The Army’s new Stryker Brigade Combat Teams will maneuver easily in close and urban terrain, while providing protection in open terrain. Performance highlights of the new vehicles include C-130 transportability; internetted C4ISR capability; integral 14.5mm armor protection and 152mm artillery airburst protection; self-deployment and self-recovery capability; reduced vehicle acoustic signature; ability to carry a nine-man infantry or engineer squad; and bunker and wall breaching capability. These characteristics support a force that will move rapidly as a cohesive combined-arms combat team, a capability not currently in the Army inventory.
The Army will have six Stryker Brigade Combat Teams by 2008. Stryker is the Army’s highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation. Significantly lighter and more transportable than existing tanks and armored vehicles, Stryker fulfills an immediate requirement to equip a strategically deployable (C-17/C-5) and operationally deployable (C-130) brigade capable of rapid movement anywhere on the globe in a combat-ready configuration.
Stryker is a family of eight-wheel drive combat vehicles than can travel at speeds up to 62 mph on highways, with a range of 312 miles. It operates with the latest C4ISR equipment as well as detectors for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The Mobile Gun System is armed with a General Dynamics 105mm tank cannon in a low-profile, fully stabilized, “shoot on the move” turret. It carries 18 rounds of NATO standard 105mm main gun ammunition; 400 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition; and 3,400 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition. Other Stryker configurations include the nuclear, chemical and biological reconnaissance vehicle; anti-tank guided missile and medical evacuation vehicles; and carriers for mortars, engineer squads, infantry squads, command groups, and fire support teams.
General Dynamics and General Motors share fabrication and final assembly of the vehicles among plants at Anniston, Alabama; Lima, Ohio; and London, Ontario. Deliveries of Stryker infantry carriers began from General Motors’ London, Ontario, and General Dynamics’ Anniston, Alabama, facility in March and April 2002 respectively. The U.S. Army has accepted over 400 Strykers to date.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 54,000 people worldwide and had 2002 revenues of $13.8 billion. The company has leading market positions in land and amphibious combat systems, mission-critical information systems and technologies, shipbuilding and marine systems, and business aviation.
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Any "forward-looking statements" contained in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
General Dynamics Corporation (ticker: GD, exchange: NYSE)
News Release - Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Press Contact: (586) 825-7080
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