The US Army Command conducted the so-called. Industry Day with the participation of 300 representatives of leading defense companies in order to inform them about the changes made to the list of requirements for the new Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) and the new acquisition strategy.
The US Army issued a request for proposals for the supply of a new "Ground Combat Vehicle" on February 25 this year. It was planned that within the framework of this program a family of next generation armored vehicles would be developed, which would replace the outdated M-113 armored personnel carriers and Bradley combat vehicles. However, at the end of August, after analyzing the progress of the program, the US Army command announced the cancellation of the initial request for proposals, and announced its intention to release a revised terms of reference for the project, which would guarantee the creation of a new armored vehicle on time (7 years) and at an acceptable cost.
The project is being implemented by the Pentagon instead of the canceled program of creating a family of manned ground vehicles (MGV - Manned Ground Vehicles), which was carried out as part of the "Combat Systems of the Future" project.
According to the US Army spokesman, Lieutenant General Bill Philips, the creation of the "Ground Combat Vehicle" remains the number one priority in the strategy of modernization of weapons of the US Army, which also provides for the modernization of other armored vehicles, including the Abrams MBT, the Stryker AFV and the Bradley BMP ".
According to the head of the GCV project, Colonel Andrew Dimarco, a new technical task for a project to create a promising infantry fighting vehicle with high survivability in conditions of the use of improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs by the enemy can be released by the end of October.
At the same time, the US Army has identified four priorities for the industry, on which the program for creating a new armored vehicle will be built. Among them are named: "capacity", i.e. the ability of the BMP to transport an infantry squad of 9 people to the place of operations, "security", which guarantees the safety of the crew when operating in a modern combat environment with a wide range of threats, including improvised explosive devices, "the ability to improve", providing an open architecture and modularity of design, allowing to change and improve the equipment of the AFV, the set of its protection, depending on the tasks being performed, "development efficiency", which guarantees the start of production within seven years after the start of the project.
It is also planned to take into account the firepower, maneuverability and reliability of the BMP. Potential sellers will have greater leeway in providing systems that meet these requirements.
According to Colonel E. Dimarco, at the initial stage of development and demonstration of technologies, which will be implemented in order to reduce risks, identify and preliminary demonstrate technical solutions, the US Army intends to conclude contracts with three applicants. They are expected to be determined in the second quarter of FY11. The technology demonstration phase will last 24 months.
The development phase that follows the first phase will last approximately four years. Two of the best contractors will take part in it. One winner will be selected for the production of the US Army AFV. It is planned that the first GCV armored vehicle will be delivered to the customer in FY 2017. As part of the program, in the future, a whole family of next-generation armored vehicles will be developed for the US Army.
REFERENCE:
As part of the canceled tender, three consortia submitted their proposals to the US Army, including:
- BAe Systems (main contractor), Northrop Grumman, KinetiK North America and Saft;
- "Science Applications International Corp." (SAIC) (main contractor), Boeing, Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann;
- General Dynamics Land Systems (main contractor), Lockheed Martin, Raytheon.
