Tank Replacement Contracts Given

Friday, November 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” General Dynamics Corp. and General Motors Corp. have been awarded a $4 billion Army contract to build a wheeled armored vehicle as a first step toward replacing heavy, Cold War-era tanks with a lighter, more transportable vehicle.

The contract, announced Friday, calls for 2,131 of the eight-wheeled vehicles to be built by 2008. They will equip a newly established formation that the Army calls an interim brigade combat team, a group designed to be able to move quickly into battle anywhere in the world with lighter, more versatile equipment. Eventually the entire Army may be structured this way.

The new vehicle, which the Army calls an interim armored vehicle, is supposed to be the forerunner of a futurist combat vehicle that incorporates a wide variety of new technologies. The Army chose to contract for the interim vehicle now in order to quickly begin its transition away from the heavy tank.

The new vehicle will weigh no more than 19 tons and be transportable by C-130 cargo planes. The Army's main battle tank, the M1A1 Abrams, weighs about 70 tons.

The work by General Dynamics and General Motors will be performed in Anniston, Ala., Sterling Heights, Mich., Lima, Ohio, Peoria, Ill., Indianapolis and London, Ontario in Canada.