The U.S. Army has opened competition to design and build prototypes for its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement, releasing a request for proposals to industry on July 1 on the government contracting website Sam.gov .
Details of the Request for Proposal (RFP) covering detailed design (Phase 3) and prototyping (Phase 4) have not yet been made public.
Phases of the OMFV2020 program
Phase 1: Market analysis (completed in 2020)
Phase 2: Digital design phase (2021 to early 2023), five competitors will create digital designs for the required tanks, and prepare for the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The vehicle design can then be further developed in subsequent design phases. Selection criteria include performance, design technology maturity, procurement and operating rights and costs.
Phase 3: In the detailed design phase (2023-2024), in April 2023, as a result of the study of the virtual vehicle, up to three suppliers will be invited to improve their design after taking into account the simulation results of the second phase and in Build functional prototypes by July 2025.
Phase 4: The construction of three prototype vehicles and their testing is the subject of the so-called prototype and testing phase (2025-2026), at the end of which a winner will be selected for series production of the OMFV.
Phase 5: Pre-series production (from 2027 onwards) will be used to produce pre-series OMFV vehicles, with vehicles planned for extensive testing by government agencies.
Brigadier General Glenn Dean, program executive officer for the Army's Ground Combat Systems program, offered some insight into what the vehicle's design might entail at last month's European Defense Show in Paris.
He said the requirements approach taken for the optional manned combat vehicle was "fundamentally different" from approaches taken in the past.
The Army awarded contracts to five teams in 2021 to develop preliminary designs. Point Blank Enterprises, Oshkosh Defense (including Hanwha Defense, a cooperation between two national companies), BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetall Vehicles.
Raytheon/Rheinmetall KF41 "Lynx" infantry fighting vehicle
Hanwha/Oshkosh is providing an Americanized version of the Korean K21 infantry fighting vehicle
BAE Systems cooperates with Israel Elbit Systems, The chassis of the M2 "Bradley" infantry fighting vehicle was selected as the basis, and a huge UT30 MK2 unmanned turret was installed, equipped with a 30mm machine gun and "Spike" missile , known as the BR301 solution .
General Dynamics Land Systems' Griffin III infantry fighting vehicle, the only prototype submitted for bidding in 2019, with two vehicle team members and 6 crew members. The main weapon is an XM913 50mm cannon, which is mounted on the vehicle body. There is active defense system
Another cutting-edge enterprise (Point Blank Enterprises) has never seen a prototype
Starting from nine features, the industry team has continuously proposed design plans and continuously revised them over the past 12 months.
The Army has gone through several revisions to the program's specifications "to bring the level of detail up a little bit, but, frankly, we're not done yet," Dean said.
The requirements in the exposure draft are not considered final as design work will continue during Phase 3 of the program.
Dean said that at the highest level, the Army wants a tracked vehicle that is considered "mid-weight" - between 40 and 50 tons - with at least a 30mm gun and preferably a 50mm gun gun (that is, XM913, the firepower of the main gun has been determined).
XM913 artillery sample gun, with an armor penetration thickness of up to 200 mm within 1,000 meters.
He said that the vehicle will accommodate two crew members (in other words, an unmanned turret) and six dismounted infantrymen (this is similar to Bradley, Bradley is 3+7, formerly 2 +9 But everyone said they couldn't figure it out, which partly led to the failure of the standard in 2019), and applied more autonomy in a balanced manner on the platform. The entire platform will be built using a modular open systems architecture.
"This is necessary and critical because we see this as our future," Dean said.
Dean said the Army wants to have "silent observation" and "silent movement" capabilities, meaning the vehicle can move with the engine turned off, which means a hybrid-electric solution is needed. All five groups are in the final stages of designing an hybrid electric vehicle.
He pointed out that reducing the vehicle's logistics footprint is also important, and hybrid drive capabilities can help achieve this.
must also be equipped with an active defense system. The
competition is fully open, with plans to select up to three teams to participate in the detailed design phase, followed by the prototyping phase. Written proposals will be submitted within 120 days.
In a statement on July 1, the Army said: "Over the next two phases, the Army will conduct activities to mature the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) design and validate prototype performance during test activities, Includes limited user testing. "
The detailed design phase will occur during fiscal years 2023 and 2024, with the prototyping phase beginning in 2025. The Army plans to select three teams in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 to build up to 11 prototype vehicles, two ballistic bodies and turrets, armor and provide digital engineering data, the Army statement noted.
The Army expects to select a company to build the low-rate production vehicle in the fourth quarter of 2027. The first equipped units are planned for fiscal year 2029, with full-rate production expected to begin in 2030.
The approach to competing for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) has changed dramatically from nearly three years ago, when the Army required physical bid samples to enter the competition. The Army received only one sample physical bid from General Dynamics Land Systems, GDLS, before the established deadline in October 2019. Defense News broke the news that the only other entry - Rheinmetall and Raytheon's team's Bobcat KF41 - was disqualified because it was not delivered on time to 's Aberdeen trials in Maryland. field .
The development timetable and requirements for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) already doomed the program when BAE Systems, the company that produced the Bradley, withdrew from the competition just months before the deadline.
The Army pulled the plug on the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) competition rather than settle for just one option and took a step back to come up with a plan to better facilitate a robust mission within a more reasonable timeline. compete.
The Army abandoned plans to require physical bid samples at the outset and instead instituted a five-phase effort that would begin with an initial design phase and move into a detailed design phase, followed by prototyping, testing and production.
