February 11, 2021 | International, Land
by Ashley Roque
US Army soldiers are in the midst of a five-month assessment of two different ‘light tank' prototypes – one version by BAE Systems and the other by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) – but the former company has yet to deliver any of its vehicles, according to industry and the service.
The army kicked off its Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) soldier vehicle assessment (SVA) on 4 January and it is anticipated to continue through to June, Ashley John, director for public and congressional affairs for the Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, told Janes on 27 January. Under the larger programme, both BAE Systems and GDLS are under contract to deliver 12 MPF prototypes to the army and soldiers are slated to test out four vehicles of each variant. However, this testing phase began with vehicles from only one company – GDLS.
We have received 12 prototypes in total, and four ballistic hull and turrets,” John said. “We will continue to receive the remaining prototypes throughout fiscal year 2021.”
Although John did not disclose which company produced the delivered prototypes, a GDLS spokesperson confirmed that the company delivered its 12th and final prototype to the army at the end of December 2020. GDLS's delivery completion means BAE Systems has delivered only two ballistic hulls to the service.
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by Marc Selinger Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has promoted chief financial officer (CFO) Christopher Kastner to the new position of chief operating officer (COO), giving him oversight of the company's three operating divisions, the US shipbuilder announced on 18 December. HII said that Kastner will work closely with the presidents of the three divisions – Newport News Shipbuilding, Ingalls Shipbuilding, and Technical Solutions – to “drive execution” on HII's backlog, which recently set a record high. “We are establishing this position to signal our continued and strong commitment to performance and execution, to better reflect the business dynamics associated with our historic USD45 billion backlog, and in recognition of the importance of the [US] Navy's new long-range shipbuilding plan,” HII spokeswoman Beci Brenton said. The shipbuilding plan calls for a larger fleet. Thomas Stiehle, CFO of Ingalls, will replace Kastner as HII's CFO. Kastner and Stiehle will begin their new jobs on 12 February and will report to Mike Petters, HII's president and CEO. Asked whether Kastner's appointment means he is being groomed to succeed Petters someday, Brenton said, “there is no change to Mike's role, and he will continue to be the president and chief executive officer of HII for the foreseeable future”. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/huntington-ingalls-names-new-coo-cfo