The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Thales and Boeing which will see the Franco-American consortium manage the army's new armoured vehicle procurement programme.
Signed at the end of last week, the defence contract is the first to be agreed as part of a £16 billion equipment procurement process, reports the Financial Times.
The Thales-Boeing consortium beat competition from BAE Systems, QinetiQ and Ultra Electronics to secure the six-month, £4 million contract.
Thales and Boeing will be responsible for the co-ordination of the procurement programme, taking the role of system-of-systems integrator (Sosi).
Sosi will form part of a new alliance - the Future Rapid Effect System programme - which aims to launch 3,000 new vehicles.
However, speculation mounts that despite the agreement, the first set of vehicles would arrive over two years later than the initial deadline of 2012.
Meanwhile, this week has seen another defence procurement programme agreed which will see Remploy provide the MoD with a £6.6 million order for 44,000 chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear suits.
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