Second memorandum from General Dynamics
At Tuesday's session of the Defence Committee
when the DPA gave evidence there was some discussion of the various
evolutions of the Piranha vehicle and I thought it would be helpful
to clarify the detail of these variants for the Committee's information.
The Piranha III has been sold to Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and,
in a separately developed solution, as Stryker to the US. It has
evolved from 18-22-25 tonnes since 1997. I explained to the Committee
last week that General Dynamics is not suggesting the Stryker
ICV, currently at 19-22 tonnes, as a solution for the FRES utility
variant. This view derives from our understanding of what the
DEC believes is needed as a base FRES platform to ensure survivability
and future growth.
The Piranha IV has been developed since 2004
for higher weight applications and was designed at 25 tonnes.
It has been through three development cycles in that time and
is in a high state of production readiness. Because survivability
requirements have evolved very quickly in the last two years we
have commenced the next evolution of the Piranha, known as Piranha
V, starting from a baseline of 26 tonnes. We believe it is a strong
candidate to be used as the basis of the FRES utility variant,
using the proven development path and processes of the Piranha/Stryker
family.
The interim Piranha Evolution, designed to demonstrate
key elements of the Piranha V, took part in September's Medium
Weight day in Warminster and will be offered by General Dynamics
to the Trials of Truth next year.
So, to summarise, comments made during the DPA's
evidence session that GD's current vehicles will not meet the
FRES requirement are correct when the DEC's criteria are applied
to those in volume production (Piranha III, Stryker) but do not
apply to the latest evolution from Piranha IV to V. The latter
will, in our opinion, meet the exacting FRES requirements set
by the DEC. We look forward to proving that the Piranha V provides
the lowest risk path to FRES in the trials to be held in 2007.
14 December 2006
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