US Army unveils contract to build new light tank for infantry forces

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Military on Tuesday chosen Basic Dynamics Land Techniques to construct a lightweight tank meant to enhance mobility, safety and direct-fire capabilities for Infantry Brigade Fight Groups.

The manufacturing deal is a key step ahead for Military Futures Command, which has promised quicker and extra profitable modernization applications by way of a aggressive prototyping method.

GDLS will ship 26 automobiles initially, however the contract permits the Military to purchase 70 extra over the course of low-rate preliminary manufacturing for a complete of $1.14 billion, in line with the Military.

At the least eight of the 12 prototypes used throughout aggressive analysis will likely be retrofitted to be fielded to the power, service officers accountable for the competitors stated.

The primary manufacturing automobiles are anticipated to be delivered in slightly below 19 months. The primary unit will obtain a battalion’s price of MPF methods — 42 automobiles — by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. The Military plans to enter full-rate manufacturing in calendar yr 2025, in line with GDLS.

“MPF exhibits the Military is dedicated to doing acquisition quickly and utilizing all the brand new approaches and new authorities now we have to do modernization in a brand new manner,” Military acquisition chief Doug Bush stated in a June 28 media roundtable.

He famous it’s the primary main platform going from prototyping to manufacturing underneath Military Futures Command, which depends on new speedy prototyping authorities.

“This program is main the best way in that effort, and prototyping into manufacturing just isn’t simple. There’s much more work to do as we go into low-rate manufacturing after which now we have operational testing,” he stated. “However I’m very inspired by the work up to now.”

The Military expects to spend roughly $6 billion on the MPF program by way of the procurement section, together with what’s already been spent in analysis and improvement and prototyping, in line with Brig. Gen. Glenn Dean, the service’s program govt officer for floor fight methods. The overall life cycle price of this system together with sustainment, navy development and personnel is estimated at round $17 billion.

The Military plans to purchase 504 automobiles, and they’re projected to be within the stock for at the least 30 years. The majority of procurement ought to be full by 2035, Dean stated, including that the MPF program has remained on schedule and funds.

As soon as fielded, the MPF functionality will likely be organized by battalion, however will likely be employed as firms “usually” on the brigade degree, Maj. Gen. Ross Coffman, who oversees fight automobile modernization, stated throughout the identical roundtable.

GDLS and BAE Techniques — chosen in 2018 to construct prototypes — had been competing to supply MPF. Stories earlier this yr indicated the service had already made its selection, taking BAE out of the competitors a number of months forward of saying the winner.

On the time, Bush stated the Military had performed a good and thorough analysis of each automobiles, however didn’t deal with the reviews the Military had already selected a winner. Dean, throughout Tuesday’s roundtable, declined to debate the choice course of, citing the sensitivity of the competitors.

The 2 prototypes differed considerably. GDLS supplied a brand new, light-weight chassis with a high-performance energy pack and a sophisticated suspension, mixed with a turret that includes the newest model of the fireplace management system discovered within the Abrams principal battle tank.

BAE Techniques’ design is an up to date M8 Buford armored gun system with new capabilities and elements.

Military officers stated the service opted to maneuver ahead with GDLS as a result of it supplied the perfect worth. The price of the system, the maturity and the readiness for manufacturing had been all elements, Dean stated.

In 2021, the businesses had been tasked with delivering prototypes to a soldier automobile evaluation with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina There, troopers labored to validate the MPF idea and supply suggestions on how the service ought to develop techniques, strategies and procedures for preventing with this functionality.

GDLS delivered automobiles to the soldier analysis in January, months forward of BAE Techniques, which struggled with manufacturing delays because of the coronavirus pandemic. Troopers wrapped up evaluations in early August.

In fall 2021, the competing mild tank prototypes moved into the Military’s limited-user take a look at, together with live-firing of the methods, which marked the ultimate step earlier than the service chosen a winner.

“The troopers the Military chosen for [the soldier evaluation] had been tankers, in order that they had been accustomed to the Abrams tank after they began final yr’s analysis and so they instantly noticed how frequent the appear and feel and operations contained in the turret had been [compared] to the Abrams tank in the present day,” Tim Reese, GDLS’ director of U.S. enterprise improvement, instructed Protection Information on June 28. “It didn’t take numerous coaching to get them in control.”

The corporate additionally included a commander’s unbiased thermal viewer, which was not initially an Military requirement, Reese stated.

Reese stated the commonality to Abrams will imply the automobiles may be upgraded collectively the place applicable.

He stated the corporate designed its automobile with progress capability “for what we’d think about over the lifetime of this system would be the need to improve issues or add capabilities” and stated GDLS made some tweaks to the automobile after soldier suggestions.

“One of many issues that the troopers actually wished was the skirts on the observe to be extra simply detachable and turn-able, so they might get in and clear and modify the observe,” Reese stated.

“We made some adjustments to the seals round hatches based mostly on their suggestions. We discovered a number of issues concerning the cooling system,” he stated. “There’s plenty of issues which might be higher in the present day or will likely be higher once we get into low-rate manufacturing than these first 12 that we constructed for the competitors.”

BAE Techniques instructed Protection Information in a press release that whereas the corporate was “not chosen to maneuver ahead within the MPF competitors, we’ll take the innovation and classes discovered from our answer with us and apply it to future modernization efforts.”