STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich., 29 Aug. 2010. BAE Systems Land & Armaments Inc. in Arlington, Va., has established a military land vehicles design and prototyping center in suburban Detroit as part of a $58.4 million armored combat vehicle design, development, and manufacturing campus in close proximity to one of its major customers -- U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC).
BAE Systems is opening its state-of-the-art design and prototyping center in Sterling Heights, Mich., which is one town over from Army TACOM LCMC, which is in Warren, Mich., just south of Sterling Heights. Locating the new combat land vehicles and vetronics technology center in Sterling Heights also places BAE Systems in close geographical proximity to one of its major competitors, General Dynamics Land Systems, which also has its headquarters and major design and manufacturing facilities in Sterling Heights.
The company’s new Sterling Heights campus, upon completion late next year, will include a renovated test track and a four-story office building. The campus eventually will house about 600 employees. "This center will allow us to be in close proximity to our customer,” says Joe McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Heavy Brigade Combat Team Systems at BAE Systems, and Sterling Heights Site Executive.
“With this center we can address future vehicle modernization by rapidly integrating capabilities into combat systems while improving time-to-market factors, while also reducing costs for our customer,” McCarthy says. When completed, the site will total 198,000 square feet on 81 acres.
The new design center initially will have about 40 employees and more than a dozen assembly bays for vehicle and subsystem modifications, integration, and testing. in addition to supporting labs and facilities that will provide electrical assembly fabrication, software development, and system integration of vehicle control and crew station electronics. The site will also have a full-service machine shop equipped with welding capabilities.
The center also will support other company programs including Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Bradley derivatives, M88, M113 family of vehicles, M109 family of vehicles including the Paladin Integrated Management vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Medium Mine Protected Vehicle and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle.
For more information contact the BAE Systems Ground Systems segment online at www.baesystems.com.
