BAE Systems (LON: BA) has been awarded a contract valued up to $318 million from the U.S. Army to perform technical and sustainment support services for its fleet of M109A6 and A7 Self-Propelled Howitzers (SPH) and their companion, M992A3 carrier, ammunition, tracked (CAT) vehicles. Under the five-year System Technical Support and Sustainment System Technical Support contract, BAE Systems will deliver ongoing engineering and logistics services to provide new capabilities, maintenance, and testing on the family of vehicles. The services contract follows the M109A7 production contract awarded in November 2023. The M109A7 is the latest howitzer in the M109 family of vehicles, the primary indirect fire support system for the Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCT).
“The M109 Self-Propelled Howitzer continues to prove itself as the ‘King of Battle’ as it provides the firepower and maneuverability to dominate the battlefield,” said Dan Furber, director of ground vehicle production for BAE Systems’ Combat Mission Systems business. “Sustainment services for the M109 allow the U.S. Army to maintain a high level of operational readiness to take this powerful capability to the fight.”
It uses the existing main armament and cab structure of a Paladin M109A6, and replaces the vehicle’s chassis components with modem components common to the Bradley vehicle. The improved chassis structure provides greater survivability and commonality with the existing systems in the ABCT, reducing operational sustainability costs by replacing obsolete components. BAE Systems offers critical lifecycle support to the Army wherever it is needed in-country for its sustainment programs. Services in this contract will be provided at military bases in the U.S. and around the world, as well as at BAE Systems facilities in York, Pennsylvania; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Endicott, New York; Elgin, Oklahoma; and Aiken, South Carolina.
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational aerospace, defence and information security company, based in London, England. It is the biggest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe and the seventh-largest in the world. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and in the United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense. Its next biggest markets are Saudi Arabia, then Australia; other major markets include Canada, Japan, India, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase of and merger of Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), with British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.
