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General Dynamics, Force Protection Bid on Truck Order (Update1)
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By Edmond Lococo

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- General Dynamics Corp. will help Force Protection Inc. build the Cheetah truck through an existing venture as the two companies jointly bid on a contract potentially valued at $6.5 billion to supply the U.S. with as many as 10,000 armored vehicles for use in Afghanistan.

The Force Dynamics venture submitted a bid yesterday for the new MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle, Peter Keating, a spokesman for Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics, said in an interview today. The venture, formed in 2006 to build Force Protection’s Cougar truck, was expanded in the past month to include the Force Protection-developed Cheetah, he said.

As the U.S. begins to shift its focus from the war in Iraq back to Afghanistan, the military has said it needs a new truck. Terrain in Afghanistan is more difficult and roads are less developed requiring a smaller, lighter vehicle than the Mine- Resistant, Ambush-Protected Vehicles that the U.S. used in Iraq. The Army and Marine Corps will jointly purchase the truck.

Tommy Pruitt, a spokesman for Ladson, South Carolina-based Force Protection, didn’t immediately return calls to his office and mobile phones seeking confirmation of the joint bid.

General Dynamics fell $2.69, or 4.7 percent, to $54.99 at 2:38 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Force Protection jumped 65 cents, or 10 percent, to $6.96 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edmond Lococo in Boston at [e-mail].
Last Updated: January 13, 2009 14:56 EST