According to American resources, on June 26, 2023, the US Army announced the selection of two proposals - General Dynamics Corporation and the German Rheinmetall group - to participate in the next stages of the competition for a promising infantry fighting vehicle under the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program. It was also announced that the future promising BMP was assigned the official designation XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle.
A concept demonstrator of a promising infantry fighting vehicle under the US Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program, presented by the Team Lynx consortium led by the American branch of the German Rheinmetall Group (Rheinmetall North America) based on the KF41 Lynx BMP, at the exposition of the US Army Association (AUSA-2022) exhibition and conference in Washington, October 2022 (c) Danielle Callender / Rheinmetall
Recall that in July 2021, the US Army selected five proposals from various companies and consortia to submit their BMP projects for the so-called second stage (Phase 2 - Concept Design Phase) of the OMFV program restarted in April 2020. These five proposals were presented by General Dynamics Land Systems (a division of General Dynamics Corporation); Rheinmetall North America (the American branch of the German Rheinmetall Group) at the head of a consortium that also includes corporations Raytheon Technologies (RTX), Textron, L3Harris Technologies, Allison Transmission and Anduril Technologies; BAE Systems in partnership with the Israeli company Elbit Systems; Oshkosh Defense in partnership with the South Korean Hanwha group; as well as a small company Point Blank Enterprises from Miami (apparently to formally demonstrate admission to large programs of "small and medium-sized businesses").
The selected five participants were then awarded contracts for $26.6 million each for the development of their machine designs, which were submitted by November 1, 2022. Now, based on the results of their consideration, proposals from General Dynamics Land Systems and the Rheinmetall North America consortium have been selected for the next OMFV stages. Three participants - BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense and predictably Point Blank Enterprises - were left out of the tender. Previously, it was assumed that following the results of the second stage, three proposals would be selected for further competition, but for financial reasons, the US army decided to continue the program with only two.
The selected "teams" of General Dynamics Land Systems and Rheinmetall North America will participate in the third and fourth stages of the OMFV program. The third stage (Phase3 - Detailed Design Phase) provides for the development of detailed technical projects of their machines by both participants and should be completed by the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year (that is, by October 1, 2024), after which the fourth stage (Phase 4 - Competitive Prototyping Phase) will begin, at which each participant by July 1, 2025 The year will present seven prototypes (with an option for four more) of its vehicles, two armored hulls, as well as individual armored structures, detailed digital documentation, etc., and then the prototypes will undergo an extensive program of field tests throughout the year. The total amount of expenditures for the third and fourth stages is planned in the amount of $ 1.6 billion.
It is assumed that the US Army will complete comparative field tests of these prototypes by July 2026 and select one winner in January 2027. The selected type of BMP should be put into pre-production (LRIP) in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027, and the first battalion set of OMFV (XM30) should be delivered by September 2028. Full-scale production should be started in the second quarter of fiscal year 2030.
The BMP project presented by General Dynamics Land Systems is based on the Griffin IV project, which is a further development of the promising Griffin III tracked platform proposed for the first "run" under the OMFV program. General Dynamics Land Systems also advertised the "concept" of the Katalyst Next Generation Electronic Architecture (NGEA) unmanned combat platform on the same basis. The OMFV proposal on this base has a massive combat module (uninhabited/optionally inhabited) with a 50 mm XM913 cannon. General Dynamics Land Systems partners in this proposal are General Dynamics Mission Systems, GM Defense, Applied Intuition and AeroVironment.
In turn, the Rheinmetall group specifically for the OMFV tender in 2020 formed a special American company American Rheinmetall Vehicles, which heads the Team Lynx consortium, whose members are, as already mentioned, also Raytheon Technologies (RTX), Textron, L3Harris Technologies, Allison Transmission and Anduril Technologies. The consortium offers for the OMFV tender a variant of the already widely known new Rheinmetall KF41 Lynx BMP. The concept of the corresponding variant of the KF41 Lynx BMP (Lynx OMFV Digital Design Concept) was demonstrated with the Rheinmetall LANCE 5030 combat module with the same 50 mm XM913 cannon.
BAE Systems, which became outsiders of the program in partnership with the Israeli company Elbit Systems, submitted to the OMFV tender a platform in the form of a deep modernization of the Bradley M2 BMP based on a modified hull and an upgraded chassis currently used on the AMPV tracked armored personnel carrier (this project was previously known as Bradley Next Generation); Oshkosh Defense, in partnership with the South Korean Hanwha group, with a platform based on the AS21 Redback BMP offered by Hanwha for an Australian tender (the AS21 itself is a modified version of the South Korean K21 BMP); Point Blank Enterprises offered the concept of the LIBERTY platform, apparently based on one of the Israeli projects for a competition for a promising Israeli tracked armored vehicle under the Carmel program.
The OMFV program is another, already the third program attempt by the US Army to replace the M2 Bradley BMP family - after the Future Combat Systems (closed in 2009) and Ground Combat Vehicle (closed in 2014) programs. The new advanced infantry fighting vehicle program was launched in June 2018 as the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV), but in October 2018 it was renamed the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV), representing a very ambitious project to create a promising "medium" tracked infantry fighting vehicle capable of operating in both conventional and non-emergency versions, and designed to cooperate on the battlefield with the family of ground combat unmanned Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCV) platforms - "light", "medium" and "heavy" (the latter should be the same BMP in the unmanned version). At the same time, the initial start of serial production of the new BMP under the OMFV program was scheduled for the 2026 fiscal year.
However, the first approach under the OMFV program ended in failure at the beginning of 2020, faced with the skepticism of the industry, which generally considered the requirements of the US Army for a promising infantry fighting vehicle to be excessively overstated and unrealistic, including in terms of timing and costs. At the same time, applicants were required to submit ready-made samples designed and manufactured at their own expense. As a result, by the end of 2019, only one proposal was submitted to the stage of comparative tests for the first edition (April 2019) of the OMFV program - a promising Griffin III tracked platform from General Dynamics Land Systems, which still did not meet the requirements of the program in terms of weight and security. The joint proposal of Raytheon Corporation and the German Rheinmetall Group for the latest platform of the new KF41 Lynx BMP was formally disqualified by the US Army due to the late provision of a modified sample for testing at the Aberdeen proving ground (which from the very beginning aroused suspicions of the bid engagement), and BAE Systems Corporation (with the CV90 Mk IV platform) and the South Korean Hanwha group (with the AS21 Ridgeback) refused to participate in the contest themselves.
As a result, the OMFV program found itself in uncertainty and was restarted with the revision by the US army of the requirements for a promising combat platform, as well as the procurement strategy and schedule. A document with a preliminary new request for proposals with significantly modified requirements for the OMFV program was published by the US Army in April 2020, while emphasizing that "no requirements from the first request for proposals remain in force."
The new requirements for OMFV published in April 2020 significantly changed the ranking of priorities of combat characteristics of a promising BMP, putting survivability in the first position, and in fact leaving aside the requirement of air transportability. In the new list of requirements, survivability was in the first place, and mobility was in the second. In fact, this was the signal for a significant increase in mass for the new BMP. Also, more realistic requirements for the industry were formulated, both in terms of timing and technology.
According to the requirements currently being implemented, the OMFV (XM30) vehicle must be equipped with an uninhabited (but optionally/reserve habitable) combat module with a 50-mm advanced automatic gun XM913 and ATGM, and must have a crew of two people stationed in the hull and a landing party of six people in a habitable version. The machine must be equipped with an active protection system. Additional requirements put forward in 2022 also prescribe the use of a hybrid electric drive.
Distributed in the materials at the US Army Association AUSA-2021 exhibition and conference in October 2021, design images of a promising infantry fighting vehicle proposed by General Dynamics Land Systems for the US Army competition under the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program (c) General Dynamics (via twitter.com/ronkainen )