Aviation Week and Space Technology Award Recognizes British Bulldog Team

San Diego, California - A BAE Systems-led team responsible for vital upgrades to a British Army “battlefield taxi” has won a prestigious U.S. award for its work.

The Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine today selected the BAE Systems FV430 Bulldog team for a Program Excellence award in recognition of its work on the parallel powertrain upgrade & urgent operation requirements (UOR) programs.

Under the core upgrade program British Army FV430s receive a new engine and drivetrain to bring them up to “Bulldog” specification, which greatly increases reliability and significantly reduces support costs. Vehicles destined for Iraq have also received a UOR package of armor, a remotely-operated machine gun and other improvements which provide enhanced personnel protection.

BAE Systems engineers based in Basra have been ensuring the upgrade and ongoing support goes smoothly. Fifteen of these engineers were awarded British Army “Operation Telic” Iraq campaign medals as a result of their work at Basra Airport and Palace, often while under rocket and mortar fire.

The award, for “full scale production & sustainment at subsystem level” recognized the challenges posed by integration of a geographically dispersed team and the important role BAE Systems private investment played in reducing risk and timescales by developing a solution in advance of contract award.

“The award recognizes the vital role that we and our partners played in supporting the front line and the fact that it represents recognition by the rest of defense and aerospace industry makes the award a little bit more significant,” said Ian Mogey, BAE Systems Bulldog team leader. The MoD project team, Defence Support Group, which carried out the upgrade at their Bovington UK factory, and our supply network worked quickly and flexibly together to deliver more reliable vehicles with life-saving modifications to troops in Iraq.”

“Bulldog typifies the responsive service we are seeking to provide to UK forces,” said Jim Imrie, Managing Director of BAE Systems Weapons & Vehicles business In the last two years we have responded to more than 100 urgent operational requirements for UK armoured vehicles, most to provide better protection for UK troops.”

The $232 million (£155 million) program began with an original $121 million (£85 million) contract placed with BAE Systems by the UK MoD in October 2005. This covered the upgrade of the engine, transmission and other systems to 500 FV430 series vehicles. A $104 million (£70 million) contract amendment in September 2007 added the upgrade of a further 400 vehicles.

The conversion programme is scheduled for completion in March 2011. Some 20 vehicles are converted each month at the same time as they receive a major overhaul at DSG’s Bovington facility.

Further UOR upgrades, mostly to provide extra crew protection, have been covered separately under a series of individual contracts.

• Also short-listed in the awards was the BAE Systems Tornado team for their ground-breaking aircraft support arrangement with the UK Royal Air Force. The 10 year contract worth £1.3bn, includes aircraft maintenance of the GR4 fleet, spares support, technical support and training.