The Marine Corps on Monday ordered 1,000 armored vehicles from Force Protection Inc., a deal worth $481.4 million to the Ladson manufacturer, the Defense Department said.

The delivery order calls for 300 Category I and 700 Category II vehicles under the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected program, known as MRAP, the department said. The work is to be performed in Ladson and completed by May 2008.

By Charleston Business Report’s calculation, the order’s value is nearly two and a half times the $196.0 million in net sales Force Protection reported for all of 2006, a year in which its sales grew 294%, according to its annual report.

A partner on the work

Force Protection shares its MRAP work with General Dynamics. In December, Force Protection and General Dynamics Land Systems formed Force Dynamics LLC, a joint venture created to win and carry out MRAP contracts using the Cougar 4x4 and 6x6, according to Force Protection’s annual report. The partners agreed to split the joint venture’s work and revenue 50-50, and Force Dynamics is to act as prime contractor whenever practicable, the report said.

Last week brought a smaller piece of related business. On April 17, the Marine Corps modified a contract to pay about $6.9 million for logistics support on earlier MRAP vehicle contracts. Force Dynamics will supply deployment blocks, maintenance workshop blocks, field service representatives and operator and maintenance training, the company said.

The MRAP program

The Marine Corps manages the MRAP program for all branches of the military, according to Force Protection. Category I vehicles must carry at least six people and are meant for urban operations, the company said. Category II vehicles must carry at least 10 and serve multiple missions, including transport, explosive ordnance disposal and combat engineering.

In late January, the Marine Corps awarded Force Protection an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for the program. It lets the Marines order up to 4,100 MRAP vehicles per ordering year for five years, for a total possible quantity of 20,500, according to the company’s annual report. Monday’s order was placed under that contract.

The first two orders were small by comparison. The Marines ordered four vehicles for survivability and mobility testing in January, then 125 production vehicles on Feb. 14, split between 65 Category I and 60 Category II Cougars. Those orders totaled about $74.6 million, the company said.

Force Protection also builds the larger Buffalo. In November, the Marines sole-sourced 44 Buffalo vehicles to the company for MRAP’s route-clearance category, with an option for 36 more, according to the annual report.

A fast-growing plant in Ladson

Force Protection’s plant sits on a 260-acre campus in Ladson, about 10 miles from Charleston Air Force Base, according to the annual report. Its three manufacturing buildings total about 452,240 square feet, with 90,000 more square feet targeted for occupancy in mid-2007. The company had 658 employees at the end of 2006.

More space is on the way. The company said in the report that it had begun excavating for a 90,500-square-foot warehouse in Ladson, was acquiring a 60,000-square-foot building in Summerville for research and training, and had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to lease 120,000 square feet of a manufacturing plant in Florence. On March 9, it bought a blast range of about 306 acres in Edgefield County for testing.

Growing pains

The company’s rise has been quick. It traces its local roots to June 2002, when it bought Technical Solutions Group, a development-stage Charleston maker of blast-protected vehicles, and took the Force Protection name in August 2003. The Cougar first launched in 2004.

Its stock moved from the over-the-counter bulletin board to the Nasdaq Stock Market on Jan. 18, keeping the symbol FRPT, according to company filings.

The books have needed work along the way. In December, Force Protection said a review had found items that required it to restate its financial statements for 2003 and 2004. In March, it said it would also restate its 2005 statements. The company did not give a timetable for the restatements.

The contract behind Monday’s order allows for as many as 20,500 vehicles over five years. Force Protection has said its new Ladson warehouse is designed to support the higher production volumes it plans.