Competitors Vie for Army Arctic Vehicle Contract.

• Author: Roaten, Meredith

The Army is preparing to take on the extreme conditions of the unforgiving Arctic as it pursues a new cold weather vehicle. The service is ramping up testing as it works to select the manufacturer of its next-generation platform.

The Army's small unit support vehicle, or SUSV, was last purchased in 1983 to help soldiers get 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.

A year into the competition for the system's replacement, two manufacturers --BAE Systems and Oshkosh Defense --are competing in hopes of winning a contract for the cold weather, all-terrain vehicle program. Each contractor was slated to produce" two prototypes by June, with testing and evaluation ongoing through the end of the year.

BAE Systems--the incumbent--was selected in April by the National Advanced Mobility Consortium to provide prototypes for the Army's consideration. Its offering, the Beowulf, is an unarmored version of its BvSlO platform, an amphibious vehicle that has already been manufactured for militaries in five countries: Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Austria and France.

The Swedish Army recently ordered 127 more vehicles, adding to the nearly 10,000 vehicles already in operation internationally.

The Beowulf would be a tried and true choice for the Army, said Mark Signorelli, vice president for business development at BAE's platforms and services division.

"This is a vehicle that has literally millions of miles of history in its legacy vehicles, in its sister vehicles in Arctic conditions, and I can't imagine that there is a better fit for the Army's needs than what Beowulf can provide," he said during a call with reporters.

According to Pentagon budget documents, the future CATV platforms would have the capability to traverse "a wide range of otherwise impassable terrain" year round. This includes frozen ice and extreme cold weather conditions to support training. The Army announced earlier this year that the service will build a combat training center in Alaska to bolster its Arctic defense.

BAE Systems has tested the BvS 10 in the Arctic, warm weather bogs and other tough conditions such as swimming up rivers in Afghanistan, Signorelli said.

According to program requirements, the next-generation vehicle should be able to float with "sufficient freeboard to operate with one foot waves." It...