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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has selected BAE Systems to produce its new cold-weather all-terrain vehicle, choosing the contractor over an Oshkosh Defense-ST engineering team.
The service has awarded BAE’s U.S. unit and its Swedish operations a $278 million contract that includes production units, spare parts and logistical support for contractors, according to an Aug. 22 company statement. .
To replace its aging Small Unit Support Vehicle, known as the SUSV, the Army evaluated both offerings at the Alaska Cold Regions Test Center from August to December 2021.
The SUSV – also built by BAE Systems – is based on technology from the 1960s and 1970s and was last purchased in the early 1980s. The Army plans to purchase 163 cold weather all-terrain vehicles.
BAE entered the Beowulf competition, an unarmored tracked vehicle that can carry people and payloads in either of its two compartments.
“Beowulf can traverse snow, ice, rock, sand, mud, and swamps, and can operate in steep mountainous environments,” the company’s statement read. “Its amphibious characteristic also allows it to swim in flooded areas or coastal waters.”
The army is the first customer of Beowulf, which is based on the BvS10 armored variant used by five European countries: Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Austria.
The US military is increasingly focused on its preparation for the Arctic region. The military released its Arctic strategy last year, which highlights the need to modernize and scale up the service’s presence as Russia and China continue to assert their dominance in the region.
The strategy describes how the Army will generate, train, organize and equip its forces to partner with allies, protect national interests and maintain regional stability.
Earlier this year, the Army announced it would reactivate the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska and remove Stryker combat vehicles from the force structure there. And it plans to set up one of its five multi-domain task forces in the Arctic.
Jen Judson is the land warfare reporter for Defense News. She covered defense in the Washington area for 10 years. She was previously a reporter at Politico and Inside Defense. She won the National Press Club’s Best Analytical Reporting Award in 2014 and was named the Defense Media Awards’ Best Young Defense Reporter in 2018.
