Bobcat recently announced that it has received a U.S. government contract to supply Bobcat skid-steer loaders to the U.S. Army. The contract is good for five years with an initial order for 283 units worth $7.24 million.

According to Bobcat Vice President of Sales & Marketing Doug Freitag, "Successive orders will depend on annual funding, but the five-year contract could result in orders for up to 1000 units worth $25 million. We expect to begin making initial deliveries in March or April 2003, after transportability tests and other certification processes have been completed."

"We are grateful for the support of U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, who sponsored the budget line item which secured federal funding for fiscal year 2002," said Freitag. Once funding was established, the bidding process was handled by the Army’s contract negotiating arm, TACOM (Tank and Automotive Command) in Rock Island, IL. Bobcat then bid on the contract against a number of other major skid-steer loader manufacturers.

"This business opportunity really developed over the past eight years, as a result of sales efforts headed by Gerald Cardon, Bobcat government sales manager," Freitag noted. "Working directly with military installations worldwide, we were able to demonstrate the validity of the Bobcat tool carrier concept. Senator Dorgan was particularly interested in the value of using commercially available machines such as the skid-steer loader to equip fighting soldiers with modern, productivity-enhancing tools that are available to the rest of the world."

The Bobcat skid-steer loaders will each be equipped with hydraulic breakers, augers, combination buckets and pallet forks and shipped to military installations worldwide. The machines will be painted military green, but otherwise are normal production units built at the company’s Gwinner, ND, factory. Some of the attachments are built at the Bobcat manufacturing facility in Bismarck, ND.