There were enough people who wanted to create an American infantry fighting vehicle of a new generation on the second attempt. Yesterday, July 25, the portal defensenews.com He reported that the US Department of Defense has named five teams that will receive funding for the initial stage within the framework of the OMFV tender.
The bidders were Point Blank Enterprises, Oshkosh Defense, BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and Rheinmetall Vehicles. The total cost of creating five conceptual projects will be less than $300 million. In total, the OMFV tender is estimated at $4.6 billion — these funds will be spent until 2026, after which the US Army plans to launch mass production of the winning BMP.
The German BMP Lynx is one of the contenders for the OMFV tender
Image source: reinmetall.de
It is known that Oshkosh Defense will present a joint project with Hanwha to the court of the military. The Rheinmetall team also includes Raytheon Technologies, Textron and L3Harris Technologies. The Point Blank company is the only representative of "small business" who managed to pass the selection for the OMFV.
For the first time, the program Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV, "optionally controlled fighting vehicle") became known in March 2019. According to the description of the program, the OMFV should operate on the battlefield together with the infantry and is designed for close combat. The key tasks put forward by the new combat vehicle are maneuvering and hitting targets with combined weapons.
The first tender for the OMFV was held under an accelerated program and included the purchase of up to two types of operating models of combat vehicles. The contract with the finalists of the competition was planned to be signed in 2020, but the US Department of Defense overestimated the capabilities of the developers. Only one bidder, General Dynamics Land Systems, managed to meet the very tight tender deadlines. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense canceled the program, and now it has become known that the army has completely revised the requirements for new combat vehicles.
The American army has completely revised the requirement for a new car. Now, instead of mobility, the survival of the crew and landing troops will be in the first place. The main targets on the battlefield for the new BMP are the same type of enemy vehicles, not tanks.
