Whether as part of the Marine Corps demand for a lighter vehicle as I guessed some days ago or for some other reason, a chunk of the orders received by BAE Systems were through its subsidiary Stewart & Stevenson (Armor Holdings), the maker of the Caiman.
Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle, Division of Armor Holdings, Sealy, Texas, is being awarded $458,128,283 for a firm-fixed-priced delivery order #0003 under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5030) to purchase 668 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Category II (CAT II) vehicles with CAT I seating configuration, sustainment parts and engineering change proposals.The earlier Caiman order only included a very few Cat II versions of the Caiman but plenty of the Cat I. My expectation that the Marines might still be interested in the Caiman was based on the small size of the Cat I version, while this order consists of Cat IIs "with Cat I seating configuration."
(defenselink.mil)
Dividing up $2,644,490,914
Some predicted that Force Protection might eventually get squeezed out of the market when larger defense contractors started competing in the MRAP competition. This collection of contracts seems to confirm that prediction, though it's also true that the U.S. has been negotiating with the Brits to enable quick production of vehicles our allies would like to order. That order isn't particularly large, however. If Force Protection isn't making up the orders somewhere else (more Badgers?) then this contract announcement isn't good for them.
Update:
While I'm playing with graphs, I might was well include one showing the respective number of vehicles. All the MaxxPros are Cat I. Cat IIs tend to cost more.
I don't guarantee that I've correctly identified the vehicle names, by the way.*****
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