BAE Systems Awarded $70 Million for the HERCULES Recovery Vehicle

YORK, Penn­syl­va­nia — BAE Sys­tems was recent­ly award­ed a con­tract for $70 mil­lion to con­vert 30 M88A1 hulls into M88A2 Heavy Equip­ment Recov­ery Com­bat Util­i­ty Lift and Evac­u­a­tion Sys­tem (HERCULES) vehi­cles and pro­vide asso­ci­at­ed spare parts. HERCULES is the lat­est con­fig­u­ra­tion in the M88 fam­i­ly of vehi­cles.

The M88A2 HERCULES is the lat­est con­fig­u­ra­tion in the M88 fam­i­ly of vehi­cles Source: BAE Systems

HERCULES pro­vides unpar­al­leled capa­bil­i­ty for recov­er­ing today’s 70-ton com­bat vehi­cles includ­ing the M1A1, M1A2, Leop­ard, bridg­ing sys­tems and oth­er medi­um weight vehi­cles and answers the need for cost-effec­tive, self-sup­port­ing heavy recov­ery per­for­mance. Key upgrades from the M88A1 to M88A2 HERCULES con­fig­u­ra­tion include improved pow­er-assist­ed brak­ing, steer­ing, elec­tri­cal sys­tem and increased engine horse­pow­er and addi­tion­al armor pro­tec­tion, pro­vid­ing sol­diers and Marines with 25 per­cent more tow­ing mus­cle, 40 per­cent more lift­ing strength and 55 per­cent more winch­ing pow­er in meet­ing any mis­sion requirement. 

“The HERCULES is a sta­ble, cost effi­cient vehi­cle that pro­vides high recov­ery per­for­mance to our sol­diers, Marines and Allied Forces,” said Joe McCarthy, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team Sys­tems for BAE Systems. 

Vehi­cle deliv­er­ies will begin in Novem­ber 2012 and con­tin­ue through March 2013. Work will be per­formed by the exist­ing work­forces at the BAE Sys­tems facil­i­ty in York, Penn­syl­va­nia. The con­tract was award­ed by the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Man­age­ment Command. 

This award brings the total val­ue of U.S. Gov­ern­ment con­tracts BAE Sys­tems has been award­ed on the HERCULES pro­gram to $1.3 bil­lion. To date, 329 HERCULES vehi­cles have been field­ed against an over­all U.S. Army require­ment of 607 vehi­cles. A total of 67 vehi­cles have been field­ed to the U.S. Marine Corps, which has pure fleet­ed to the M88A2 con­fig­u­ra­tion, plus an addi­tion­al 114 vehi­cles to four allied nations — Egypt, Kuwait, Thai­land and Australia. 

About BAE Sys­tems
BAE Sys­tems is a glob­al defense, secu­ri­ty and aero­space com­pa­ny with approx­i­mate­ly 107,000 employ­ees world­wide. The Com­pa­ny deliv­ers a full range of prod­ucts and ser­vices for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced elec­tron­ics, secu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions and cus­tomer sup­port ser­vices. In 2009 BAE Sys­tems report­ed sales of £22.4 bil­lion (US$ 36.2 billion). 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact 

Shan­non Smith, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +1 703 894 3545 Mobile: +1 703 967 3854
shannon.n.smith@baesystems.com

www.baesystems.com

Press release
BAE Systems