Uncertainty lingers over armored multi-purpose vehicle program.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie

BAE Systems appears to be the only bidder for the Army's armored multipurpose vehicle contract, but it may not be the only winner.

Although General Dynamics Land Systems pulled out of the competition in May, Congress may force the service to adopt a mixed fleet comprising wheeled and tracked vehicles from both manufacturers.

"You might have a case where [Congress] might say, 'Award a contract to BAE Systems and then throw GD a bone," said Dean Lockwood, weapons systems analyst for Forecast International. "Probably the most likely scenario is that there will be some form of a mixed fleet ... just to keep both major contractors happy."

Earlier this year, General Dynamics filed a protest with the Army Materiel Command alleging that the AMPV requirements favored BAE. After the command in April rejected its protest, the company announced it would not pursue further legal action or bid on the contract. "It was not our intent to hold up the program," GD spokesman Peter Keating told National Defense. "Our intent was to have the Army see the argument [that] if they would change the requirements or adjust the requirements slightly, there could be a more open competition.

"A federal court case would have just stalled the Army's program and hold it up, and it's unlikely that they would ... have the technical expertise available for them to make a ruling on that. So we just decided it's not worth pursuing at that point," he added.

The AMPV is slated to replace the Vietnam War-era M113 armored personnel carrier, which originated as an infantry fighting vehicle. The Army has retained about 3,000 M113s for missions including command and control, general purpose, mortar carriers and medical treatment and evacuation, said Andrew Feickert, a military ground forces specialist, in a July 2014 Congressional Research Service report on the AMPV program. However, those vehicles are aging and in need of replacement.

Initially, the competition unfolded as a battle between BAE's tracked offering and a wheeled vehicle from General Dynamics.

BAE's design is based on a turretless Bradley fighting vehicle but has some significant differences, said Mark Signorelli, the company's vice president and general manager of vehicle systems. The AMPV has to meet slightly different mobility and ballistic protection requirements, including the ability to take an underbelly blast.

General Dynamics considered offering a variant of its eight-wheeled, double-V hulled Stryker fighting vehicle, Keating said.

The Army is planning to award...