Alvis Vickers Awarded $233.7 Million FCLV Prime Contract From British MoD

Defense Daily, Nov 25, 2003

Britain's Alvis Vickers said recently it was awarded the $233.7 million prime contract by Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to produce the Future Command and Liaison Vehicle (FCLV).

According to an Alvis Vickers statement, the contract includes the supply of 401 vehicles and options for an extra 400. Alvis Vickers has also signed a subcontracting agreement with the Iveco subsidiary of Italy's Finmeccania to supply the major subassemblies for the FCLV. This follows the signing of an exclusive co-operative marketing agreement for vehicles for export.

In July, the MoD selected Alvis Vickers over a team that included United Defense [UDI], Britain's Insys and France's ACMAT. Britain's Insys to develop and build the British army's FCLV, while withdrawing from the Boxer Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV), which Alvis Vickers was helping to develop, with Germany and the Netherlands (Defense Daily, Aug. 25). The Boxer MRAV, which was being developed by the ARTEC consortium composed of Alvis Vickers, Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and the Netherlands' Stork Group, was previously planned to replace the British army's Saxon and FV430-series vehicles, as well as for the German and Dutch armies. The first Boxer prototype vehicle was rolled out in December 2002.

FCLV is planned to replace the British army's current Scimitar family, FV430, Saxon, and Landrover vehicles in reconnaissance and liaison roles by 2006. The winning FCLV design is the 4x4 Multirole Light Vehicle (MLV).

Previously, then-Alvis and then-Vickers Defence had been competing for the FCLV prime contract, which ultimately could be worth more than $500 million. Alvis was offering its Scarab reconnaissance vehicle, which has also been tested for Belgium's Recce 2000 program; while VDS was bidding the RG-31M and RG-32M wheeled vehicles made by Vickers OMC, now Alvis South Africa (Defense Daily, Oct. 2, 2002).

Last year, Alvis completed its $25 million acquisition of Vickers Defence from Britain's Rolls-Royce, merging that company's two major manufacturers of armored vehicles (Defense Daily, Oct. 2, 2002). This followed Alvis' August 2002 decision to acquire Vickers Defence after seven months of negotiations. The move was approved last September by the British government (Defense Daily, Sept. 26, 2002).

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