BREAKING: BAE Wins Army's Hotly Competed Cold Weather Vehicle Contract

BAE Systems photo

BAE Systems — along with its Swedish division — has won the Army’s competition to build the new Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle, according to the company.

The company received a $278 million contract for production units, spare parts and contractor logistics support that will run through the year 2029, the Defense Department said when announcing the award Aug. 22. Budget documents have called for an initial procurement of 10 vehicles.

BAE’s Beowulf vehicle beat out an Oshkosh Defense and Singapore Technologies Engineering partnership that was offering ST Engineering’s Bronco 3 platform, which is part of the Asian contractor’s Bronco family of vehicles.

The Beowulf will be built by BAE Systems Hägglunds in northern Sweden, the statement said, although it will include several key components from U.S. suppliers, such as its engine, transmission and hydraulic system. BAE Systems Hägglunds also built the legacy fleet of Small Unit Support Vehicles.

The new Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle will replace the Army’s small unit support vehicle, or SUSV, was last purchased in 1983 to help soldiers drive through challenging terrain such as snow, mud and swamps. The platform, which is amphibious and tracked, has a footprint that exerts less pressure than a human foot, allowing it to traverse deep snow smoothly.

“The win further confirms BAE Systems as the industry leader in the design and production of military all-terrain vehicles for operations in harsh terrains and in the toughest weather conditions,” BAE said in a statement.

The Beowulf is unarmored, tracked, and can carry personnel and a variety of payloads in either of its two compartments. It can traverse snow, ice, rock, sand, mud and swamp conditions, and can operate in steep mountain environments, BAE said. Its amphibious feature also allows it to “swim” in flooded areas or coastal waters.

This marks the first sale of Beowulf — based on its sister BvS10 armored variant — which is in service with several European nations, the company noted.

“As the focus on arctic mobility operations grows, we see increasing opportunities in other markets for the BvS10 and Beowulf with an emerging demand to replace legacy BV206s,” Mark Signorelli, vice president of business development at BAE Systems Platforms and Services, said in the statement.

“We have been maturing and modernizing cold weather all-terrain capabilities for decades, bringing advanced capabilities to the United States and numerous other countries. This contract means we will continue to do so for many years to come,” he added.

Testing the two competing vehicles included amphibious operations, navigating terrain with varying levels of complexity, starting and operating in extreme cold weather, and most critically, user assessment by soldiers.

Topics: Army News, Tactical Wheeled Vehicles, Combat Vehicles