Details on Army's new ground combat vehicles

DefenseTech has some great new details on the Army's new ground combat vehicles.

The U.S. Army is mov ing for ward on its ground com bat vehi cle (GCV) pro gram with an aggres sive time line and highly defined require ments for sur viv abil ity, mobil ity and versatility.

The ser vice wrapped up the last of three indus try days in Michigan Dec. 3. The first, held Oct. 16 in Dearborn, pre sented high-​​level require ments and an acqui si tion strat­egy to more than 600 indus try par tic i pants. The sec ond indus try day, held Nov. 23–24 in Warren, pre sented 325 indus try par tic i pants from 247 com pa nies with a state­ment of work and briefs on clas si fied sur viv abil ity require ments and a detailed acqui­si tion schedule.

The last event tar geted the gov ern ment research and devel op ment com mu nity, and the require ments, acqui si tion, resourc ing and con tract ing com mu ni ties, accord ing to Paul Mehney, the Army’s rep re sen ta tive for its Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) pro gram. Attendees were pro vided a detailed state ment of work, a detailed sched ule includ ing major mile stones and the over ar ch ing capa bil i ties doc u ment requirements.

The BCTM helps replace the now-​​defunct Future Combat Systems (FCS), a mul ti fac­eted super-​​program that included the erst while Manned Ground Vehicle. The new GCV is the MGV’s successor.

“We stressed that the three most impor tant require ments [for the GCV] are sur viv abil­ity, mobil ity and ver sa til ity,” Mehney said. “Industry has to bring us a holis tic sur viv­abil ity solu tion,” to include armor, active pro tec tion sys tems and coun ter mea sures. Concerning mobil ity, the vehi cle must “have the urban mobil ity of a Stryker and the off-​​road mobil ity of a Bradley,” he added. The ver sa til ity piece focuses on the vehicle’s abil ity to accept easy upgrades post-​​production.

Although the Army has not placed weight or size restric tions on the future GCV, the vehi cle will have to sat isfy require ments that will end up dic tat ing weight and size.

The GCV must be trans portable by rail, C-​​17 or ship. It must hold a crew of three and a squad of nine. Additionally, there is an impro vised explo sive device (IED) sur viv­abil ity require ment and a high-​​level tech nol ogy matu rity requirement.

By: Brant