GD moves closer to purchase of heavy-combat truck maker

General Dynamics announced Monday it has moved one step closer to acquiring a leading manufacturer of blast-resistant vehicles.

Virginia-based General Dynamics said in a statement it has completed a “tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Force Protection, Inc.”

GD announced earlier this year it was buying the South Carolina-based heavy-combat truck builder, which is best known for its Buffalo, Cougar and Ocelot vehicles.

“Force Protection will become a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics as a result of the merger and will become part of General Dynamics Land Systems,” the company said in its statement.

GD is making the move as it looks to bolster its Land Systems division, which now makes Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Stryker vehicles.

The Pentagon began buying massive, blast-resistant trucks in 2007 as makeshift bombs were killing and wounding U.S. forces in Iraq at a rapid rate. Many of the design characteristics from those vehicles are atop Army and Marine Corps performance standards for the list of new combat trucks the services will need in the future. And that makes Force Protection’s vehicles an attractive line for General Dynamics as it seeks to expand its profits even as annual Pentagon budgets decline.

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