General Dynamics, GM Win Army Contract

General Dynamics Corp. and General Motors Corp. were 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 vehicle that’s easier to transport. The contract 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. The new vehicle, which the Army calls an interim armored 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 Alabama, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana as well as in Britain and Canada.