Army awards Arsenal $2.7M contract to upgrade main battle tanks

Photo By Markus Rauchenberger | U.S. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, fire a M1A2 Sepv2 Abrams Main Battle Tank during exercise Combined Resolve VII at the 7th Army Training Command in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Aug. 18, 2016. Combined Resolve (CbR) VII is a 7th Army Training Command, U.S. Army Europe-directed exercise, taking place at the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas, Aug. 8 to Sept. 15, 2016. The exercise is designed to train the Army’s regionally allocated forces to the U.S. European Command. Combined Resolve VII includes more than 3,500 participants from 16 NATO and European partner nations. (U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger)  

WATERVLIET ARSENAL, NY, UNITED STATES

09.29.2016

Story by John Snyder 

Watervliet Arsenal

WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. (Sept. 29, 2016) – The arsenal announced today that it has received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Army to upgrade several hundred Abrams main battle tanks with a modified breech block.

This order will add to the more than $60 million in new contracts the arsenal had received earlier this year, which for the most part, will be work performed in fiscal years 2017 through 2019, said Tom Pond, the arsenal’s director of operations. Each fiscal year begins on October 1.

Pond said that anytime the arsenal receives a multimillion-dollar contract is good news, but this order was exceptionally good news as it was not part of the production plan for future years and adds more than 9,200 hours of direct labor.

Adam Ford, the project manager for this order, said the contract requires the arsenal to modify nearly 450 tank breech blocks with an Ammunition Data Link and to begin delivery of the breech blocks to Soldiers in the field by April 2017. The last shipment is scheduled for January 2019.

Scott Huber, the general foreman of the team that will work on this order, said the more than 9,000 hours of direct labor will help provide consistency to his workload in future fiscal years.

“Although the modification will not require any significant machining challenges, it will provide consistent long-term work for my production team,” Huber said. “Fortunately for us and for the Army, we have been manufacturing the Abrams breech blocks for more than 30 years and so, this modification will not be difficult.”

Huber said that the Arsenal is currently in production of new tank breech blocks, as well as modifying existing breech blocks for the Army under previous orders.

The upgrade to the Abrams tanks is the result of great research and design work done by the Army’s Benét Laboratories, which is located on the Watervliet Arsenal. Benét has designed an Ammunition Data Link for the Abrams tank that will provide the tank crew the ability to fire the Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) and M829A4 Advanced Kinetic Energy (AKE) rounds.

This ADL is an electronic signal pathway from the fire control processor to a chambered programmable tank round. The portion of the pathway designed by Benét Laboratories carries the signal from turret signal network to the rear face of the chambered round.

The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States having begun operations during the War of 1812. It celebrated its 200th anniversary on July 14, 2013.

Today’s Arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most advanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark had revenue in fiscal year 2015 that exceeded $138 million and provides an annual economic benefit to the local community in excess of $100 million.
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Cutlines and Photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/29894712572/in/dateposted-public/
Arsenal General Foreman Scott Huber inspecting nearly completed 120mm Abrams Tank breech blocks.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/29925421121/in/dateposted-public/
Arsenal General Foreman Scott Huber standing by nearly completed 120mm Abrams Tank breech blocks.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/29894711062/in/dateposted-public/
Arsenal General Foreman Scott Huber checking out a newly arrived 120mm breech block forging.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/29925418711/in/dateposted-public/
Abrams tank 120mm gun breech block forgings just arrived for machining. These are new breech blocks.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/29894709252/in/dateposted-public/
Abrams tank 120mm gun breech block forgings just arrived in September 2016 for machining.

• Date Taken: 09.29.2016
• Date Posted: 09.29.2016 16:01
• Story ID: 210953
• Location: WATERVLIET ARSENAL, NY, US