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Textron awarded $332.9M contract for mobile strike force vehicles

By James LaPorta
Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, climbs into the driver's seat of a Mobile Strike Force Vehicle at the Afghan National Army Armored Branch School in Kabul province, Afghanistan, May 7, 2013. Photo by Sgt. Kent Redmond/U.S. Army
Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, climbs into the driver's seat of a Mobile Strike Force Vehicle at the Afghan National Army Armored Branch School in Kabul province, Afghanistan, May 7, 2013. Photo by Sgt. Kent Redmond/U.S. Army

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Army officials have awarded a new contract to Textron Systems Marine and Land Systems, out of New Orleans, La., for the procurement of 255 Mobile Strike Force Vehicles, or MSFV, in a deal worth more than $332.9 million.

Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of October 2024, the Department of Defense said Wednesday when announcing the deal.

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Textron Systems Marine and Land Systems produces three variants of the MSFV, including an armored personnel carrier, or APC, which is equipped with a Mk.19 Grenade Launcher, an automatic belt-fed weapon system that fires 40mm grenades. The APC also has a .50 caliber machine-gun turret.

In May 2011, two years after former President Barack Obama surged more than 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, the U.S. Army contracted Textron Systems Marine and Land Systems to produce all three variants of the MSFV for the Afghanistan National Army, or ANA, totaling 240 vehicles. The first MSFVs were shipped there in November 2011 to ANA Kandak battalions, Afghan infantry units made up of around 600 soldiers.

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In 2012, Pentagon officials ordered three additional contracts to procure 200 more MSFVs for the ANA. The June 2012 contract alone was worth $79.2 million. As the Afghanistan war began to wind down in 2014, the total vehicles the federal government provided to the ANA was 634.

The Department of Defense did not say whether the newly-ordered MSFVs would be for the U.S. Army or other allied nations.

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