General Dynamics and TDA Armaments SAS Announce Teaming on 120mm Rifled Mortar Systems

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), has agreed to work with TDA Armaments SAS, a joint venture company of Thales LLC and EADS Deutschland, to pursue business opportunities for 120mm rifled mortar systems with the U.S. armed services.

Under the agreement, General Dynamics will become the sole U.S. licensee for the loading, manufacture, and production of seven different types of 120mm rifled mortar ammunition rounds for use in TDA’s 120mm rifled mortar guns. TDA currently supplies 120mm rifled mortar guns and ammunition systems to 24 different armies worldwide, including four NATO allies.

The NATO-qualified TDA 120mm rifled mortar ammunition that General Dynamics will produce includes high explosive (HE), practice, smoke, illuminating, HE rocket assisted projectile (HE-RAP), anti-armored personnel carrier (AAPC), and dual purpose, improved conventional munition (DPICM) grenade-payload rounds. The TDA 120mm projectile shape and rifled stabilization result in an inherently more accurate system than smoothbore fin-stabilized rounds.

In addition, the rifled mortar design offers significant advantages over other munitions for extending the ranges of mortars to the distances desired by both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army. Current smoothbore mortar-round designs offer no logical starting point for the incorporation of additional propulsive power, whereas the TDA rifled-body designs offer nearly unlimited range-growth potential by adding solid rocket motors (SRMs) on projectiles, just as some extended-range artillery systems do.

The first business opportunity that the General Dynamics/TDA team will pursue is the Marine Corps Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) procurement, expected in early FY04. The EFSS is the third leg of the USMC’s "Fix Fires" initiative to improve organic indirect fire capabilities across all weapon ranges. The EFSS is envisioned for target sets ranging from 0-20 km, and must be lightweight, minimal in size, and internally transportable on the CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter (threshold) and the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft (objective). General Dynamics will be the systems prime contractor for the EFSS opportunity, with TDA producing significant subsystems and gun components and acting as the lead technical authority for overall integration.

In addition to the EFSS procurement, GD-OTS and TDA plan to market the 120mm rifled mortar technology to other US service users. The TDA rifled 120mm system has seen renewed interest by various "light fighter" elements of the US Army, with evaluations and demonstrations either planned or recently completed for US Special Operations Command and the XVIIIth Airborne Corp.

The General Dynamics-TDA agreement also extends a continued joint-development effort of a guided variant of TDA’s Very Long Range-Rocket Assisted Projectile (VLR-RAP), a 17 km round first developed and flown by TDA from 1986-1991. The VLR-RAP is a smoothbore/rifled interoperable mortar round using a rocket motor to extend its range and gas-actuated folding fins to stabilize the round through the 70-second-plus full-range flight. The companies will incorporate General Dynamics’ proprietary Low-Cost Course Correction (LCCC) module, developed for 120mm mortars, into the VLR-RAP round to yield a Guided VLR-RAP (GVLR-RAP) with an anticipated 18 km range and very high accuracy. General Dynamics and TDA have teamed on the VLR-RAP since 1998 and will now offer the GVLR-RAP jointly worldwide.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems is a leading developer and manufacturer of ammunition systems for the armed forces of the United States and its allies. The company designs, develops and produces a wide range of ammunition products for large and medium caliber cannons, tanks and artillery, as well as aircraft and naval platforms.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 54,000 people worldwide and had 2002 revenues of $13.8 billion. The company has leading market positions in land and amphibious combat systems, mission-critical information systems and technologies, shipbuilding and marine systems, and business aviation.

TDA Armaments SAS is the worldwide leader in 120mm Battalion Mortar Systems. Originally formed as the Edgar Brandt Company in 1912, and later Hotchkiss Brandt, Thomson-Brandt Armaments (TBA) and finally Thomson- Daimler Armaments (TDA) SAS, this company pioneered all three modern mortar calibers fielded worldwide. Currently, TDA is a joint venture company of Thales (formerly Thomson CSF) and EADS (formerly Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace). Although primarily engaged in mortar guns and ammunition, TDA also produces a wide range of munitronics, payload submunitions and fuzing, and 70mm rocket systems.