Alvis
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Alvis was a UK car builder and Military vehicles that was taken over by Leyland, subsidiary Rover in 1965.
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[edit] History
As part of Rover, Alvis Limited was incorporated into British Leyland but was subsequently sold to United Scientific Holdings plc in 1981. As a consequence the company's name changed to Alvis plc.
In 1998, the armoured vehicle business of GKN plc was taken on and the main UK manufacturing operation moved from Coventry to Telford. The site of the Alvis works in Holyhead Road is now an out-of-town shopping complex, but its name, Alvis Retail Park, reflects the heritage of the site.
In 2002 Alvis acquired Vickers Defence Systems divison of Rolls-Royce plc for £16 million to form Alvis Vickers. The acquisition of Vickers brought the Challenger tank into Alvis' portfolio, as well as Vickers' successful military bridging division and its South African subsidiary Vickers OMC.
BAE takeover
In 2004, the board of Alvis approved a £309m takeover bid by the American defence company General Dynamics. Within 3 months BAE Systems, which already had a 29% stake in the company, outbid General Dynamics by offering £355m. The action was seen as a defence of the home market from a foreign rival. David Mulholland of Jane's Defence Weekly said "I don't believe BAE expects to make money from this deal," characterising the purchase as strategic rather than commercial. The bid was accepted by the majority of shareholders.
In September 2004, BAE announced the creation of BAE Systems Land Systems, a new company bringing together the BAE subsidiaries; "BAE Systems RO Defence" (the former Royal Ordance factories) and "Alvis Vickers". Alvis Vickers became BAE Systems Land Systems (Weapons & Vehicles) Limited, a subsidiary of BAE Systems Land Systems. In 2005, the acquisition of United Defence led to the creation of BAE Systems Land and Armaments. Alvis also took over Unipower as part of a plan to tender for the contact to build the new Heavy Haulage tank transporter tractor units for the UK army to replace the [Scammell Commander]] units then in operation that dated from the 1980s and had Leyland heritage. The operation was renamed Alvis Unipower and also provides parts support for the former Scammell operations.
[edit] Product History
The manufacture of cars was stopped in the 1967. For detailed info on Alvis Cars see Wikipedia Alvis Cars article here
Military vehicles and aircraft crash tenders becoming the main product lines then.
In the late 1990s they designed a Supper Heavy Tractor unit to tender for contract for a new British army Tank transporter unit. Several evaluation units were built, but they lost the contact to American firm Oshkosh. The units were sold to Alstom for ultra Heavy Haulage use as ballasted tractors.
[edit] Model range
Alvis military vehicles
- Alvis Saladin eg FV601 Saladin
- Alvis Saracen eg FV603 Saracen
- Alvis Stalwart eg FV620 Stalwart[1]
- The CVR(T) series eg FV101 Scorpion
- Alvis Stormer in service with the British Army as FV4333 Stormer
- Alvis Salamander crash tender
- Alvis HH Tractor (prototype for Army Tank Transporter)(Unipower designed)
[edit] See also
- Alstom
- Alvis Cars
- Leyland
- Military vehicles
- Rolls Royce
- Scammell
- Unipower
- Vickers
- List of UK Military vehicles by FV number
[edit] References
- Wikipedia article
- Magazine article on Unipower
- High Wide and Heavy by David Lee
[edit] External links
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