On June 28, local time, the U.S. Army officially announced that General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) defeated BAE Company to win the US Army’s $1.14 billion bid for the U.S. Army’s next-generation “Mobile Protected Firepower” (MPF) light tank plan. According to the plan, General Motors will first provide the U.S. Army with the first batch of 96 MPF light tanks, and the U.S. Army’s final procurement target of MPF light tanks is 504 units by 2035. At the same time, according to Brigadier General Glenn Dean, the U.S. Army’s ground combat system program executive officer, the U.S. Army will purchase the first batch of 26 MPF light tanks this year.
As early as the 1990s, the United States wanted to develop a light tank to replace the old M551 "Sheridan" light tank (picture 1 below), and then launched the M8 light tank (M8 Armored Artillery System ) (picture below) 2), this light tank has a total combat weight of 18 tons. Like the FCS of the same period, it tried to use the advantages of informatization and automation to make up for the disadvantages of armor. However, this project was too radical. In addition, the defense budget was significantly reduced in 1997, and the M8 was later cancelled.
During the war on terrorism, the U.S. military needed a light tank with a lighter weight and good delivery capabilities. It could be used as an armored fire support unit accompanying infantry and vehicles for the U.S. highly motorized infantry brigade to provide support for mechanized troops (later the Stryker). Brigade) provides fire support, making it capable of fighting enemy heavy armored targets. The M1A2 tank has powerful firepower and good protection, but its mobility cannot keep up with wheeled armored vehicles. Therefore, the US military has a need for light tanks. The "Mobile Protected Firepower" program is the product of this idea. The purpose is to develop a light tank for the US Army that can follow long-range maneuvers of medium and light troops. The U.S. Army requires that new light tanks weigh no more than 40 tons to ensure that a C-17 transport aircraft can transport two vehicles at a time. After competitive bidding, the design plans of , British BAE Systems and American General Dynamics Ground Systems entered the testing stage in 2018.
The Stryker brigade can only meet the needs of medium and low-intensity combat, that is, fighting the security war and beating Uncle Black.
is the bidding product of General Company's MPF. BAE's light tank solution is directly based on the previously discontinued M8 light tank. It was improved on the basis of the tank and is also called the M8 light tank. The new M8 light tank uses a larger 120mm main gun and is equipped with an automatic loader. When firing the new tail-stabilized discarding sabot armor-piercing projectile , it can penetrate the T-72 main battle tank at a distance of 2,000 meters. Main armor. In addition, millimeter-wave phased array radars of the active defense system are installed on both sides of the M8 turret to detect threats from incoming artillery shells and rockets . There are also active interceptor missiles above the M8 turret (picture below).
However, the new M8 light tank is the same as the old M8. The biggest flaw is still the protection. When the M8 light tank adopts first-level protective armor, the total combat weight is less than 18 tons. Although the M8 can be transported by the C130 transport aircraft, the US military does not like this light tank with the same level of protection as the " Stryker ". Therefore, the M8 light tank program was eventually ruled out in March and continued. General Dynamics finally had the last laugh on the M8's fate.
The MPF light tank that General Motors won the bidding for this time has a total combat weight of 34.5 tons. It uses the chassis of the "Ajax" infantry fighting vehicle. A C-17 transport aircraft can transport two MPFs. Its main weapon is a 105mm M35 low-recoil rifled gun, which can fire a variety of ammunition including M900 armor-piercing projectiles and the newly developed 105mm "Advanced Multipurpose Projectile" (AMP). The MPF's secondary weapon is a 7.62 mm M240 coaxial machine gun, and a weapon remote control station with a 12.7 mm M2 heavy machine gun on the top of the turret. However, the MPF still uses a four-person crew and does not use an automatic loader. The result is that the turret of the MPF light tank is huge, and the body is too high, which increases the area to be bombed, which also increases the weight of the tank. I really don’t know why, the new tanks put into production in the 2020s do not yet have an automatic loader.
MPF light tank is ridiculously tall
In terms of fire control, the MPF light tank will adopt the new fire control system of the M1A2C. The gunner will use the "gunner's primary sight" (GPS) jointly developed by Raytheon and DRS. ), the commander adopts French Safran's PASEO modular advanced stabilization sighting system, which integrates a thermal imager, an eye-safe laser rangefinder, a daytime TV, and two-way stabilization of the sight line. In addition, the MPF will be equipped with the new MFoCS II as standard The computer system, MFoCS II, is the basic hardware device of the U.S. military's next-generation Joint Battle Command Platform (JBC-P) combat management system. Combined with the second-generation Blue Force Tracking System (BFT-2), it provides the vehicle crew with comprehensive battlefield information and situational awareness.
In addition, MPF is also equipped with a new DVE-W driving vision enhancer on the front of the car body, the front corners, and the rear of the car. It integrates an uncooled thermal imager with a wide field of view of 107°, which can provide vehicle It has omnidirectional situational awareness and is equipped with a Pilar V acoustic sensor from France's Metravib behind the turret (picture 2 below). Pilar V can detect the sound of sniper gunfire, and the direction of the detected sound source will be displayed on the screen, followed by the turret. Or the weapons station will automatically pivot to a threatening position to counterattack.
In short, although the MPF light tank adopts many new technologies, its informatization level and situational awareness have been greatly improved, and its firepower has further explored the ultimate potential of the 105mm rifled gun. However, from the overall design of the MPF, especially its appearance, , compared with its competitors' light tanks that have long been unveiled, there is still a certain gap in the overall design concept of the MPF.
