
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991                   TAG: 9102030158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DAMMAM, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

ARMY SUSPECTS FLAW IN BRADLEY CARRIERS

The U.S. Army is rushing to inspect hundreds of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, its premier armored infantry transport, for a transmission defect that could render it a sitting duck in combat.

"The problem can result in a lack of full speed in reverse and inability to obtain third range in forward, thus limiting forward motion to approximately 10 to 12 miles per hour," according to an Army memo sent to commanders in Saudi Arabia last week.

The 60,000-pound Bradley is designed to travel at speeds up to 38 mph, according to an Army fact sheet.

The tank-like carrier is designed to carry nine infantrymen into heavy ground combat, in tandem with the Army's top-line M-1 Abrams battle tank.

The memo, released to The Associated Press by the Pentagon in response to a query about the transmission problem, said 511 Bradleys are potentially equipped with the defective part.

In a separate memo distributed at the Pentagon on Saturday, the Army said "a large quantity of the suspect transmissions have already been repaired" including "a number" of those now in Saudi Arabia.

An Army official in Washington said he did not know how many, but "I would suspect more than half." An Army source in Saudi Arabia, however, said he did not believe the work was that far along.

The inspection order came after three Bradley transmissions failed in heavy testing. The defect was traced to a lever inside the transmission control apparatus.

The affected model is the A2 Bradley, the most recent in the production series.

by CNB