Battelle will begin transforming Toyota’s Land Cruiser 200 series standard SUVs into specialized armored vehicles for the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) under a new contract award.
Over the past decade, Battelle has steadily built its specialty automotive manufacturing capabilities at facilities on the west side of Columbus, Ohio, building hundreds of armored vehicles for select Department of Defense customers.
Under a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) awarded last year by the Department of State, Battelle recently won a BPA call to build 229 armored Land Cruisers. Delivery of the vehicles is scheduled to begin in March 2022 and be completed in June 2023.
Battelle has a proven track record of performing sophisticated systems integration for military and commercial applications. Under this contract, our ground systems team will execute on its custom designs and integrate complex systems to meet mission requirements–at a competitive cost.
George Lecakes, vice president and general manager for Battelle’s national security business
Battelle takes existing commercial vehicles, re-engineers them with protective armor and enhances performance by redesigning and installing stronger suspensions for operations in rugged terrain and enhanced power systems to meet the needs of the upgraded system.
Battelle has a long history of helping the U.S. government with protective vehicles, all the way back to its work on tank armor in World War II. Since 2013, Battelle has transformed hundreds of standard pickup trucks and SUVs into specialty armored vehicles for U.S. Special Operations Command. Prior to its current work on vehicles, Battelle armored High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles, more commonly called Humvees. Battelle also trained military personnel and contractors to install protective armor kits onto existing vehicles.
Source: Battelle news release