WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Parts of Marine Fighting Vehicle Designed in Vt.

Parts of Marine Fighting Vehicle Designed in Vt.

Jericho, Vermont - October 22, 2009

With Americans seeing more combat in Afghanistan, the troops will be glad to have a new and better fighting vehicle. It's the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and parts of it were designed here in Vermont, by General Dynamics in Burlington. It's fully amphibious and has a powerful 40 mm gun that the company showed reporters Thursday at the Ethan Allen firing range in Jericho.

"The Marine Corps does a lot of other stuff that just requires a good, robust ground combat vehicle. We certainly saw a lot of that in Iraq, the first part of our engagement there, 2003, 2004, 2005, some of the things the Army, Marine Corps and other countries are doing in southern Afghanistan," Col. Keith Moore said.

The gun has a sophisticated system that feeds the ammunition.

The new fighting vehicles come in at a cost of just over $15 million apiece and won't be fully deployed for awhile, beginning five years from now.

Andy Potter - WCAX News