STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. Army has awarded delivery orders for a total of 109 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics . These three recent orders are valued at $155 million and increase the Army's fiscal year 2006 Stryker procurement to a total of 518 vehicles.
Work will be performed in Anniston, Ala.; Lima, Ohio; and London, Ontario, Canada, by existing General Dynamics employees. Work is expected to be completed by October 2008.
Stryker, a family of eight-wheel-drive combat vehicles that can travel at speeds up to 62 mph on highways with a range of 312 miles, is the Army's highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation. Stryker operates with the latest C4ISR equipment and an integrated armor package protecting soldiers against improvised explosive devices, rocket propelled grenades, and a variety of infantry weapons. Stryker's current combined fleet operational readiness rate is 96 percent with more than 6 million miles accumulated through two completed Operation Iraqi Freedom rotations.
To date, General Dynamics has delivered more than 1,780 Strykers of the 2,691 included in the U.S. Army's plans for seven Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. Fielding is currently underway for the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.; 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; and the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.
Significantly lighter and more transportable than existing tanks and armored vehicles, Stryker fulfills an immediate requirement to equip a strategically deployable (C-17/C-5) and operationally deployable (C-130) brigade capable of rapid movement anywhere on the globe in a combat-ready configuration.
Stryker Brigade Combat Teams have operated with "historically high" mission availability rates in Iraq since October 2003, demonstrating the value of a force that can move rapidly as a cohesive and networked combined-arms combat team.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 81,900 people worldwide and had 2005 revenue of $21.2 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation. More information can be found online at http://www.generaldynamics.com/
