BAE enters infantry bidding war

LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- British defense giant BAE Systems on Wednesday submitted a last-minute bid in the race for a $1.7 billion contract to modernize Britain's fleet of infantry tanks.

BAE Systems has designed a new infantry fighting vehicle for Britain's armed forces. The British Ministry of Defense wants to upgrade 449 of its 786 Warrior IFHs.

The BAE Systems design features "a new turret and weapon system to increase firepower; a fully digital 'operating system' to improve fightability and survivability and allow plug-and-play future upgrades; and a modular armor system for quick and simple adjustments to protect against ever-changing threats," the company said in a statement.

It competes with Lockheed Martin UK, which entered the bidding with a redesign of the original turret.

With unusually strong wording, BAE Systems questioned the safety of the rival model.

"As the manufacturer of Warrior, we took the view that modifying the existing turret was not a satisfactory solution as it could raise safety issues," BAE said. "Instead, we have developed a completely new design which fully meets the (British Defense Ministry's) protection requirements."

BAE added that its model was created to add fully armored troops.

"Large hatches (of the BAE model) are designed to accommodate today's and tomorrow's soldier wearing full Osprey body armor," BAE said. "Soldiers are getting bigger and crew positions in many existing vehicles are becoming too cramped to accommodate them or allow easy exit from the vehicle in an emergency."

Lockheed Martin UK strongly denounced the BAE statement and said it had created a low-risk solution.

"(We) are committed to putting the soldier first. We have created a solution that increases the soldier's safety and increases mission effectiveness," the company was quoted as saying in a statement by Defensenews.com. "We have conducted finite element analysis, which proves the structural integrity of our solution. We have upgraded the turret to include mine blast seats with five point harnesses."

Observers say BAE is eager to score the IFH deal in a bid to come back after a depressive 2009.

London is expected to decide which model to choose in the first months of next year.