Winning drive for South African Army

Günter Endres

Monday, 16 June, 2008

Curtiss-Wright Controls is announcing today that it has received a USD 39m phased contract award from South African defence manufacturer Denel Land Systems, a division of Denel (Pty) Ltd, to supply actuation and drive systems that will be incorporated into new-generation infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) for the South African Army.
Five variations of the combat vehicles with distinct turret configurations will be developed by Denel – Command, Mortar, Missile, Section and Fire Support – under a 2007 contract signed by Armscor for 254 vehicles. Weapon actuation systems and drive systems for turret, mortar and missile launcher for all variants will be developed and manufactured by the Drive Technology unit of Curtiss-Wright Controls’ Engineered Systems business group at its Neuhausen, Switzerland, facility.
Manufacturing will be localised during the series production phase in support of the industrial participation programmes of Armscor and the Department of Trade and Industry.
“We are extremely excited to announce this award, which represents the largest contract ever for Curtiss-Wright Controls Drive Technology,” said David Adams, president of Curtiss-Wright Controls. “We are proud of our longstanding partnership with Denel and look forward to putting Drive Technology’s 50-plus years of engineering leadership to work on the ICV programme.”
Another contract was awarded in mid-May by General Dynamics C4 Systems and Rockwell Collins for Curtiss-Wright Controls to provide General Processor Modules (GPM) for use in the Integrated Computer System (ICS) of the US Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme.
The initial order, worth USD8m, is for more than 1,000 modules, with deliveries scheduled to begin during the second quarter of 2008. The Integrated Computer system combines a wide range of previously independent computing applications into a single, integrated, secure processing environment. ICS is a common computing environment for 13 of the 14 platforms in the FCS family of systems, which comprises a network of sensors, unmanned aerial platforms and manned and unmanned ground systems.
Curtiss-Wright Controls is located on Stand D075a.

Curtiss-Wright Controls will be driving the new South African ICVs