CTA International to provide Warrior upgrade

Britain will use an Anglo/French-developed gun to upgrade its fleet of Warrior infantry fighting vehicles. The weapon also will be fitted to a new generation of armored scout vehicles being purchased as part of the 16 billion pound ($31.9 billion) Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) project.

The decision could be announced during the two-day visit to Britain by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which gets under way March 26, although U.K. Defence Ministry officials were cooling expectations of an announcement during the summit visit, saying it may come later.

In a statement, an MoD spokesman confirmed that a decision on the cannon had been communicated to defense industry bidders.

"The MoD has contacted bidders regarding the 40mm cannon for the Warrior and FRES scout vehicles. A formal announcement will be made in due course," it said.

The 40mm cased telescoped weapon system designed by CTA International, the BAE Systems/Nexter joint venture, has been under development since the 1990s. If the deal is completed, it would be the first sale for the Anglo/French company.

The British push to equip the Warrior and the FRES reconnaissance vehicles with the weapon may be matched by a French decision to use the system on its own armored vehicles.

A spokesman for BAE here declined to comment.

The cased ammunition and the associated loading system design of the CTAI weapon is more compact than conventional cannon systems.

Contenders for the program to improve the Warrior's striking power with a new turret and gun were informed by letter March 20 that, subject to satisfactory terms being agreed with CTAI, the Ministry of Defence intended to mandate use of the weapon.

BAE, Selex, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have all been engaged in a fierce competition to secure the British Army's Warrior Fightability and Lethality Improvement Programme (WFLIP), which is part of a wider update planned for the vehicle.

All four contenders responded to an earlier prequalification questionnaire offering their own turret designs and gun combinations. BAE is offering the CTAI weapon in its turret design, while its rivals were proposing ATK's 30mm Bushmaster gun with a growth path to a 40mm weapon at a later date.

One executive who has seen the letter from MoD project team leader Maj. Gen. Alan Macklin said it cited operational requirements and the increasing maturity of the CTAI weapon as the reasons for moving straight to the larger caliber.

The recent questionnaire stipulated that a 30mm cannon was the minimum requirement for the WFLIP, the executive said.

The letter made no mention of the turret but indicated that the way forward on the program was under review and there would be more clarity by the end of the summer, they said.

Britain's MoD funded a manned turret integration program with BAE using the 40mm weapon starting in 2004. Last year, the British defense company announced it was providing private funding to expand that work with the Manned Turret Integration Programme (MTIP2).

"This [announcement] has clearly been pushed out quickly ahead of the Anglo-French summit. Given the British MoD funding associated with the program, the decision was not unexpected although it's only a few months since the PQQ told us 30mm weapons were acceptable. There will only be a turret competition if the complete CTAI design is made available to other bidders," said the executive.

"There may be a competition, but mandating the CTAI weapon is like giving BAE the lock to the door," the executive said.

Rival companies had been waiting for the MoD's Defence Equipment & Support organization to issue an invitation to tender to launch the final stage of the competition to revitalize the fighting capabilities of several hundred Warriors with a new turret and gun to replace the unstabilized Rarden 30mm cannon currently used.

Lockheed Martin, which is cooperating with Rheinmetall Landsysteme on a modified version of the existing Warrior turret, said that as a systems integrator it was cannon agnostic.

"We believe we have a strong position resulting from our proven innovation and value-for-money WFLIP solution, and we look forward to a forthcoming invitation to tender," a Lockheed Martin spokesman said.

In a written statement, General Dynamics, which is offering a version of its Mk44 turret, said, "In light of the emerging acquisition strategy, we were reviewing our options and therefore this decision does not come as a great surprise to us, not least given the current pressure on the MoD to deliver greater commonality across equipment programs."

A spokesman for Finmeccanica company Selex, which teamed with Oto Melara to offer the HITFIST turret, confirmed that the company has been informed of the decision and is "now seeking further clarification on how best to proceed."

The reconnaissance variant of the FRES armored vehicle family to be armed with the CTAI weapon is in the assessment phase.

Source: A. Chuter - Defense News

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