Armor Holdings, Inc. was an American manufacturer of military, law enforcement, and personnel safety equipment. It was acquired by BAE Systems on July 31, 2007 and renamed BAE Systems Mobility & Protection Systems. The divisions have been reorganised within

BAE Systems Land and Armaments BAE Systems Platforms & Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, ad ...

History

Armor Holdings was founded in 1969 as American Body Armor and Equipment, Inc.Armor Holdings, Inc. -- Company Profile
/ref> at Jacksonville, Florida. In January 1996 the company underwent a change in control; Kanders Florida Holdings, Inc. and others purchased the stock held by the company's two largest shareholders. The Armor Holdings, Inc. name was adopted on August 21, 1996. It acquired Fairfield, Ohio-based O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt in 2001 and renamed it Centigon. In 2003, it acquired Simula, Inc. a developer and producer of

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

seating systems, the Cockpit Air Bag System (CABS) for US Army helicopters, the Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) armor system, and parachutes. Simula developed and produced the first

crashworthy Crashworthiness is the ability of a structure to protect its occupants during an impact. This is commonly tested when investigating the safety of aircraft and vehicles. Depending on the nature of the impact and the vehicle involved, different crit ...

armored crew seats for the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

and

AH-64 Apache The Boeing AH-64 Apache () is an American twin- turboshaft attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement and a tandem cockpit for a crew of two. It features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night v ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. On August 2, 2005, Armor Holdings acquired Second Chance, a body armor manufacturing company, for $45 million. In 2006, Armor Holdings obtained a $649 million order for the U.S. Army to manufacture tactical vehicle trucks. In this same year it acquired the vehicle division of Stewart & Stevenson, which originally built the tactical vehicle truck for the Army.

BAE acquisition

On May 7, 2007 BAE Systems announced its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. was to purchase Armor Holdings for US$4.1 billion (US$4.5 billion including net debt). The acquisition was completed on July 31, 2007. Armor Holdings' three business units; Aerospace & Defense Group, the Products Group and the Mobile Security Division were merged into BAE Systems as Mobility & Protection Systems, BAE Systems Products Group, and BAE Systems Mobile Security respectively.

Products

Its products include the Caiman MRAP vehicle, Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), the

Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle The Pinzgauer is a family of high-mobility all-terrain 4WD (4×4) and 6WD (6×6) military utility vehicles. The vehicle was originally developed in the late 1960s and manufactured by Steyr-Daimler-Puch of Graz, Austria, and was named after ...

, as well as armor kits and components for the HMMWV and

Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement The Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) is a series of vehicles used by the U.S. Marines. The first MTVRs were delivered in late 1999. The MTVR is the equivalent of the U.S. Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV); the Marines ...

(MTVR) (through subcontractor, Plasan Sasa). It also produces the majority of the

MOLLE MOLLE (pronounced ,, homophonic with the name Molly) is an acronym for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. It is used to define the current generation of load-bearing equipment and backpacks used by a number of NATO armed forces, esp ...

equipment. It delivered its Maneuver Sustainment Vehicle (MSV) to US Army for evaluation in

Future Tactical Truck System The Future Tactical Truck System (FTTS) was a United States Armed Forces program for which the Operational Requirements Document was drawn up during 2003. FTTS was a proposed two vehicle modular family that was to replace the AM General High Mob ...

competition, along with

Navistar International Navistar, Inc is an American holding company created in 1986 as the successor to International Harvester. Navistar operates as the owner of International-branded trucks and diesel engines. The company also produces buses under the IC Bus b ...

and Lockheed Martin.

Zylon Body Armor Settlement

On October 7, 2008, the US Department of Justice announced a $30 million settlement with Armor Holdings Products LLC over claims that Armor Holdings knowingly violated the Federal False Claims Act by selling defective Zylon body armor to the government. This is part of a larger investigation of Zylon armor by the DOJ and the military.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Official Website
Defense companies of the United States BAE Systems subsidiaries and divisions Manufacturing companies based in Jacksonville, Florida American companies established in 1969 Manufacturing companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Florida 2007 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies Defunct manufacturing companies based in Florida Military vehicle manufacturers