BAE Systems has officially offered the U.S. Army its armored multi-purpose vehicle to replace Vietnam-era M113 armored personnel carriers now used in support roles.

The Army ended the M113 program in 2007 and is holding a competition for its replacement.

"Today's (Wednesday's) submission is the culmination of more than 15 years of concept development and validation and two years of internal development and responses to the Army to fill a critical capability gap for our soldiers," said Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager of Combat Vehicles at BAE Systems.

"Our AMPV proposal provides an affordable low-risk solution that is ready now and meets the Army's survivability, force protection, and mobility requirements."

BAE said its AMPV leverages Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Paladin Integrated Management designs.

Working on its development team are DRS Technologies, responsible for power management, distribution, and integration; Northrop Grumman, responsible for mission command mission equipment design and integration; Air Methods Corporation, responsible for the design and integration of medical evacuation and treatment sub-systems; and Red River Army Depot, responsible for vehicle teardown and component re-manufacturing.

"BAE Systems built and demonstrated prototypes for each of the five variants in order to provide the best solution for the Army," said Greg Mole, AMPV capture director at BAE Systems. "Given the maturity of our design and the commonality both within the AMPV and ABCT (armored brigade combat team) fleets, we feel this offers significant opportunity to accelerate the program's schedule."

The Army plans to issue a contract for the manufacturing and development phase of an M113 replacement next January.