Breaking news
Watervliet Arsenal received a $47 Mn contract to manufacture M777 howitzer cannon for India 51801173.
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Defence & Security News - The Watervliet Arsenal
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Watervliet Arsenal received a $47 Mn contract to manufacture M777 howitzer cannon for India
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The Watervliet Arsenal has received a $47 million contract to manufacture 145 howitzer cannon systems as part of a $737 million foreign military sales contract that BAE Systems has with the Indian government. This award took about eight years to finalize and is the largest single contract the arsenal has received in decades.
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 Under the contract, the arsenal will manufacture M776 155-mm tubes and associated parts for BAE that will become an integral part of the M777A2 lightweight howitzer system that India will purchase from BAE (Photo John Snyder) |
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The U.S. Department of Defense and the Indian Ministry of Defence signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance on November 30, making India the third U.S. ally to purchase the M777A2 howitzer system. The other two countries are Australia and Canada.
The size and importance of this order cannot be overstated, by the arsenal or by the Army. "By far, this is the largest foreign military sales of the 155-mm towed howitzer system that we have on record," said David Wong, the Army's program manager for foreign military sales of towed artillery systems. "And, there may be an opportunity for follow-on orders." Additionally, this order goes far beyond the manufacturing of howitzer tubes. The order will require the arsenal to manufacture other parts to the howitzer system, such as breech blocks, muzzle brakes, and breech rings. Each of the sub-parts to the order will require extremely tight machining tolerances that will be measured in thousandths of an inch. Nevertheless, as great as this order is for the arsenal, it will not solve all the ills of an uncertain and declining defense budget, Turcotte said. "As large as this order is, it will only help us fill the gap in workload requirements to sustain our current workforce through 2020," Turcotte said. "But many of us here are hopeful that this order will put us (arsenal) on the world stage for military weapons manufacturing, which may lead to other foreign military sales." The arsenal will deliver 73 cannon systems in fiscal year 2019 and 72 systems in fiscal year 2020. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the previous year. |
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 U.S. Army M777 towed 155mm howitzer firing in Afghanistan Sept. 16, 2016. (Photo Credit: Army Cpt. Grace Geiger) |
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