House appropriators add funds for Stryker upgrade

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee has added funding to the Army's fiscal year 2020 request for additional upgrades to the Stryker vehicle.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) in a release announcing the bill notes the draft provides $249 million more than the Army requested to procure 86 Stryker weapon systems (30 mm cannons and weapon stations).

The 30 mm cannon is one of three lethality upgrades the Army is planning for the Stryker -- the others are a Common Remotely Operated Weapons System-Javelin Engineering Change Proposal and an Anti-Tank Guided Missile ECP.

The service began conducting market research for the 30 mm cannon with an industry day March 13 at Detroit Arsenal in Warren, MI, to "brief the draft Stryker [Medium-Caliber Weapon System] program plan," according to a Feb. 25 industry notice.

Following a pending request for information, the Army plans to select the vendors who will receive DVH A1 Strykers along with the Orbital ATK XM813 cannon and deliver production-ready bid samples.

The subcommittee tomorrow will mark up the draft spending bill, which includes in both the base and Overseas Contingency Operations accounts $59 billion for military personnel; $71.5 billion for operations and maintenance; $25.4 billion for procurement; and $12 billion for research, development, test and evaluation for the Army, consistent with the service's request.