FREE: Vintage BMY York, Pennsylvania Key Ring

Having successfully refurbished half-tracks, Jeeps & motorcycles during WWII, BMY was contracted by the DoD in the early '50s to redesign, modify & rebuild existing vehicles for the Mutual Defense Aid Program. Among these were M4A1, M4A3(75)W Sherman tanks & Priest M7B1 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriages. M4A3(75)Ws were modified into M74 TRVs, M7B1 Priests into M7B2s & the Sherman tanks were rebuilt & retrofitted with 76mm guns. (Source: Sherman Register). Following a massive decline in orders for tracked combat vehicles between '83-'94, FMC Corporation & the Harsco Corporation agreed to combine their defense businesses, & formed United Defence Limited Partnership. United Defense was ultimately sold to The Carlyle Group which, through its Iron Horse subsidiary, purchased the company for $880 million. United Defense Industries (UDI), as it became known, went public on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2001. On 7 March 2005, BAE Systems announced it was acquiring UDI. The bid was referred to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to ensure there were no national security implications of the sale. On 24th June BAE Systems completed the purchase of UDI for $4.192 billion, and formed BAE Systems Land and Armaments, grouping together all the company's land systems businesses.