August 2, 2003
The Muskegon Chronicle
From Local Reports

The General Dynamics Land Systems plant on Getty Street will add eight or nine jobs by year's end thanks to an order to supply 5,400 cylinder heads over the next five years for the Army's M-88-A1 tank recovery vehicle.

U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra's office announced the Army order this week.

General Dynamics spokesman Pete Keating said the order will be good for the company's Muskegon plant. We had not been the principal suppliers of those cylinders for several years, Keating said. We won a head-to-head competition with the government's previous suppliers, and it got us back in that business.

The impact is strong in that it provides a lot of hours over the whole contract, and we're going to add about eight or nine folks on top of what we were already carrying in that area, Keating said.

He said the added jobs would be for machinists and assembly workers, and work would start before the end of 2003.
The order announced this week is worth $11.2 million. Assuming the Army executes future options on the contract, which Keating said usually happens, the total amount of the contract through its completion date of Aug. 31, 2008, will be $50 million.

© 2003 Muskegon Chronicle. Used with permission