GDELS Partners with FSDS to Pursue Danish Army's APC-R Contract

General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) has joined forces with Falck Schmidt Defence Systems (FSDS) to compete for the Royal Danish Army's M113 armoured personnel carriers replacement (APC-R) contract.

As part of the teaming agreement, the two companies will jointly propose an armoured personnel carrier (APC) for the programme, as reported by Shephard.

GDELS was short-listed by the Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistic Organisation (DALO), earlier this month to submit bids for both wheeled and tracked options of the programme.

The company is offering its subsidiary Santa Barbara Sistemas' Austrian-Spanish Cooperative Development (ASCOD 2) and Mowag Piranha V vehicles for the tracked and wheeled categories.

Falck Schmidt Defence Systems CEO Jan Falck-Schmidt said the agreement represented a significant strategic alliance with an international perspective that can improve the company's technology knowledge and production skills.

"FSDS has a proven record in production, assembly, integration and test of complete armoured personal carriers to the Danish Army, and this partnership will improve this capability to an even higher standard," Schmidt said.

GDELS president Alfonso Ramonet added that the company was looking to partner with FSDS to remain a key supplier for the Danish Army vehicle fleet, and also engage in close cooperation with the overall domestic defence industry.

The ASCOD 2 is a tracked infantry fighting vehicle, while Piranha V is an 8×8 fifth-generation of the family of Piranha wheeled utility vehicles.

Other selected tracked category vehicles include BAE Systems Hagglunds CV90 Armadillo, Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) G5 protected mission module carrier (PMMC), while Nexter Systems' Vehicule de Combat d'Infanterie (VBCI) has been shortlisted in the wheeled vehicles category.

The selected vehicles are set to undergo a 17-week long evaluation programme at Oksbøl camp, Denmark, as well as several other locations on the Jutland Peninsula starting from the middle of April 2013.

APC-R programme seeks delivery of approximately 360 vehicles in six different configurations, including an infantry APC, command and control, ambulance and mortar carrier, as well as engineering and repair vehicles.

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