Monday, June 8, 2015

Third Round in US Army's IFV Replacement

FUTURE FIGHTING VEHICLE

Third round has started in US Army's ill-fated Bradley Replacement Efforts



It was FCS - Future Combat Systems first in 2002 that aims to replace M2 Bradley with a new vehicle, namely: XM1206 ICV.

XM1206 ICV
The FCS was cancelled in 2009 and XM1206 went with it.

Then in 2009, Ground Combat Vehicle, GCV - a program aiming for the replacement of Bradley starts in 2009. 

BAE Systems GCV Concept
BAE Systems GCV Concept
GCV aimed at developing an Infantry Fighting Vehicle with a high degree of protection using available technologies.

However, on February 2014, GCV gots terminated following its predecessor.

Fast forward to June 2015, enter Future Fighting Vehicle via Defense News:

From the ashes of the US Army's canceled 70-ton ground combat vehicle, the Future Fighting Vehicle (FFV) program has begun to sprout — at least concepts for it.

The Army has awarded two contracts of more than $28 million each to BAE Systems Land and Armaments and General Dynamics Land Systems to develop design concepts for the FFV. The work is due Nov. 28, 2016.

The effort is meant to inform whether the Army will produce an entirely new vehicle or a potential replacement for the BAE-manufactured Bradley fighting vehicle, (which I didnt understand  or lead to a third round of improvements for the Bradley.

The companies are to conduct trade studies, requirements analysis, and modeling and simulation, and assess technology capability and maturity to support each of three design concepts...

We will all see if really the third time is the charm...