BAE, GD join forces on combat development

Two giants of the defense world have agreed to collaborate to help the Army's Heavy Brigade Combat team's modernize two of its primary combat vehicles.

BAE Systems Inc. and General Dynamics Corp. will work together to upgrade and modernize BAE's family of Bradley fighting vehicles and GD's M1 Abrams tanks.

The memorandum of agreement was pushed by the Army as a way of bringing common capabilities and solutions to the heavy brigade by having the two companies work together on translating warfighter requirements into capabilities. The agreement also calls for establishing common procurement of materials.

"As the Army adds capability to the Heavy Brigade Combat Teams, they desire common solutions to reduce logistics burdens, to lower development costs and to make Soldier training easier," said Mark Roualet, senior vice president and chief operating officer General Dynamics Land Systems, the GD unit that builds the M1 tank.

The agreement also will allow the companies to apply lessons and technologies from their work on the Future Combat System program to current combat vehicles.

Both BAE of Rockville, Md., and GD of Falls Church, Va., are on the Washington Technology 2007 Top 100 list of the largest government contractors. General Dynamics ranks No. 7 on the list, and BAE ranks No. 15.