Bulldog team snaps up award for excellence
28 Apr 2009
A BAE Systems team responsible for vital upgrades to a British Army "battlefield taxi" has won a prestigious US award for its work. The Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine selected the BAE Systems FV430 Bulldog team for a Program Excellence award in recognition of its work on the parallel powertrain upgrade and urgent operational requirements (UOR) programmes.
Under the core upgrade programme, scheduled for completion in March 2011, 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 which were destined for Iraq also received a UOR package of armour, a remotely-operated machine gun and other improvements which provide enhanced personnel protection. BAE Systems engineers based in Basra ensured the upgrade and ongoing support went smoothly.
The award, for "full scale production and sustainment at subsystem level" recognised 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 recognises 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 the defence and aerospace industry makes the award that bit more significant," said Ian Mogey, Bulldog Team Leader.
"The MOD project team, Defence Support Group (DSG), 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 service we are seeking to provide to UK forces: 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 £155m programme began with an original £85m 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 £70m 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.