BAE Systems Reaches Milestone with Modernized Howitzer Vehicles

YORK, Penn­syl­va­nia – BAE Sys­tems has deliv­ered sev­en Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment (PIM) pro­to­type vehi­cles to the U.S. Army on sched­ule. PIM is the lat­est how­itzer in the M109 Pal­adin fam­i­ly of vehi­cles.

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Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment vehi­cle
The Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment vehi­cle is the next-gen­er­a­tion of artillery which lever­ages the capa­bil­i­ties and tech­nolo­gies of the Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team
Source: BAE Systems

BAE Sys­tems was award­ed a $63.9 mil­lion research and devel­op­ment con­tract in August 2009 to pro­duce five Self Pro­pelled How­itzers and two Car­ri­er, Ammu­ni­tion, Tracked vehi­cles. The first pro­to­type vehi­cle was unveiled ear­li­er this year in January. 

“This land­mark is real­ly a tes­ta­ment of the great team we have assem­bled to work on this com­bat proven sys­tem,” said Joe McCarthy, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of the Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team (HBCT) sys­tems for BAE Sys­tems. “With every job we strive to meet and exceed our cus­tomers’ require­ments and expec­ta­tions and thanks to the hard work and com­mit­ment of our employ­ees we were able to meet that goal and even exceed it by pro­duc­ing some of the vehi­cles ahead of schedule.” 

The ini­tial PIM vehi­cles are con­duct­ing con­trac­tor test­ing in Yuma, Ari­zona and Aberdeen, Mary­land before they are deliv­ered to the cus­tomer begin­ning in Jan­u­ary 2011. 

The PIM uses the exist­ing main arma­ment and cab struc­ture of a Pal­adin M109A6 and replaces the out-of-date chas­sis com­po­nents with up-to-date com­po­nents from Bradley Com­bat Sys­tems. PIM incor­po­rates a state-of the-art “dig­i­tal back­bone” and pow­er gen­er­a­tion capa­bil­i­ty and inte­grates elec­tric ele­va­tion and tra­verse dri­ves, elec­tric ram­mer and dig­i­tal fire con­trol sys­tem. The upgrade of the PIM ensures com­mon­al­i­ty with exist­ing sys­tems in the Heavy Brigade Com­bat Team (HBCT), and reduces its logis­ti­cal foot­print and oper­a­tional sus­tain­abil­i­ty costs by replac­ing obso­lete com­po­nents with­in the mobil­i­ty chassis. 

The Pal­adin Inte­grat­ed Man­age­ment vehi­cle is the first pro­duc­tion vehi­cle equipped with the company’s enhanced on-board pow­er man­age­ment capa­bil­i­ty, rep­re­sent­ing the first imple­men­ta­tion of the U.S. Army’s On Board Pow­er Man­age­ment require­ment. BAE Sys­tems’ enhanced on-board pow­er man­age­ment solu­tion will dou­ble the elec­tri­cal pow­er of most mil­i­tary vehi­cles, expo­nen­tial­ly increas­ing the mis­sion effec­tive­ness of ground forces in theatre. 

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

Source:
BAE Systems 

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