Force Protection earns modest MRAP order from Canada

Force Protection continues to make good on its goal of garnering vehicle contracts from nations other than the US in order to make up for its trouble securing domestic sales.

Force Protection, Inc. today announced that it has received a modification under contract M67854-07-C-5039 for the delivery of 14 of its Buffalo A2 route-clearance vehicles and 34 of its Cougar vehicles to the Canadian Government. The undefinitized contract modification carries a dollar value not to exceed $49.4 million and includes vehicles, spare parts and field support. The vehicles are scheduled for delivery in 2009.
(MarketWatch)

While the numbers aren't exactly impressive, it's enough to offer hope that FPI can stay in the armored vehicle game. By way of comparison, Blackwater recently cut its armored vehicle programs after losing the key first round of the JLTV competition.

More on the Blackwater JLTV

clipped from www.tactical-life.com

The accompanying story includes general information about the development process.

Over the past 18 months, Blackwater has been discretely (sic) building a very credible manufacturing capability. They now have two manufacturing facilities in North East North Carolina. The timeline on the JLTV contract is tight. There are just 27 months to complete the design, production and testing of three models of the JLTV. Blackwater has just completed designing, testing and producing five models of its MRAP in less than 18 months.
(Tactical-Life.com)

The Blackwater-Raytheon JLTV

The JLTV version of Blackwater's "Grizzly" has a more roadworthy (and offroadworthy) appearance than its MRAP predecessor. Though this partnership has to be a longshot to make the next round of the competition, the vehicle looks like a quite credible entrant based simply on its appearance. And that observation, of course, is somewhat obvious given the expense of developing a competitive prototype.

I'd like to see a Consumer Reports style rundown of the competition, but I suppose there are too many secrets at stake for anything like that to get to print out in public.

clipped from www.defensenews.com

I note that my first experiment in satisfactorily updating the Clipworks presentation is an aesthetic failure.