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16 May 24. GDLS Delivers 1st M10 Booker Combat Vehicles to US Army.
- New assault vehicle for IBCTs are set for government testing and logistics efforts
General Dynamics Land Systems announces that it has delivered the first M10 Booker Combat Vehicles to the U.S. Army.
The M10 Booker is a new assault vehicle for the Army’s Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs). It moves rapidly in a variety of terrain conditions to engage and destroy enemy combatants, bunkers, machine gun positions, fortifications and armored combat vehicles.
As part of low-rate initial production (LRIP), multiple Booker vehicles have been delivered to the Army to support government testing and logistics efforts. The Booker employs a four-person crew and features an enhanced thermal viewer, a large-caliber cannon, a lightweight hull and turret, and a modern diesel engine, transmission and suspension system. It has been designed from the start for capability upgrades, based on future operational needs.
“The M10 Booker is named after two American heroes who gave their lives in service to their country, and we are honored to design, build and deliver these vehicles to the Army,” said Gordon Stein, General Dynamics Land Systems vice president and general manager for U.S. operations. “These latest Bookers incorporate improvements and lessons we learned from the Middle Tier Acquisition phase of the program, and we’re confident that Soldiers will find them highly useful in completing their missions.” (Source: ASD Network)
15 May 24. Department of Defense Announces the Regional Sustainment Framework. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Dr. William A. LaPlante, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, Chris Lowman, today released the Regional Sustainment Framework (RSF), which aims to optimize regional Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO).
“The RSF leverages our strong partnerships throughout the global defense ecosystem to deliver enhanced sustainment capabilities in theater,” LaPlante said. “Doing so will create a distributed network of MRO facilities that is global in scale, but regionally aligned to the most relevant platforms and systems.”
Aligned with the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS), RSF underpins the Department’s effort to develop distributed MRO capabilities closer to the point of need by collaborating with allies and partners, as well as the U.S. and international defense industrial bases, to support the Joint and Combined Force.
The initiative is critical to operations in contested environments where traditional methods of retrograding materiel for repair and maintenance are increasingly untenable. RSF has three primary goals:
- Prevail in a Contested Logistics Environment: Optimize and align weapon system product support strategies to establish a viable distributed MRO ecosystem.
- Enhance Military Readiness: Collaborate with the defense industrial base and allies and partners to build regionally-focused sustainment strategies that increase readiness and deter aggression.
- Strengthen Regional Partnerships: Develop sustainment strategies promoting joint/allied regional MRO to expand repair network capacity across warfighting domains.
“Traditionally, commanders in theater have partnered with host nations and industrial base partners in theater to perform repair on a case-by-case basis,” Lowman added. “We can no longer wait for crisis to compel this level of collaboration. Today, we are leading with the development of a global network of MRO capability that is regionally aligned to enhance partnership and joint force readiness in competition so that it is viable in conflict.”
RSF showcases the Department’s commitment to succeeding through teamwork across the defense enterprise.
The full RSF is available at: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asds/docs/RSF-9MAY24.pdf. (Source: U.S. DoD)
14 May 24. US Army marching towards key M10 Booker test, 2025 fielding.
An upcoming Initial Operational Test and Evaluation event will help service leaders determine just what near-term and long-term changes they want to make to the light tank.
As the US Army prepares to field its new light tank next year, the M10 Booker, it is gearing up for a testing series that will help determine just what modifications may be needed, according to a one-star general charged with requirements.
Shortly after the July 4 holiday, operators and maintainers at Ft. Liberty, N.C, are scheduled to start new equipment training with the tracked combat vehicle that will last through the August-September timeframe, the director of the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman told Breaking Defense May 9.
Some of those soldiers and vehicles will then head to Ft. Stewart, Ga. to embark on gunnery training before returning to Ft. Liberty for collective training in November. If the plan stays on track, in early January 2025 the service will take the vehicle to an Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) event that will determine what near-term and long-term changes General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) needs.
“There will be a list of things that we want to improve on the vehicle: Our team, along with others will make recommendations as to which things need to be fixed immediately prior to fielding, what things are maybe a longer-term fix and what things may be for consideration later if funding is available,” the one-star general added.
That critical test event also paves the way for the Army and company to ink a full-rate production deal, a decision point slated for the April to June 2025 timeframe, according to recent budget request documents. For now, though, the service envisions acquiring 504 Booker vehicles, with initial vehicles costing the service between $12 m and $14 m.
Initially dubbed the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF), Army leaders unveiled the fleet’s new name last year: A vehicle now carrying the name of Private Robert Booker (an infantryman) who was killed in action during World War II on April 9, 1943, and Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker (a tanker) who was killed in action on April 5, 2003, during the Thunder Run into Baghdad.
As for its design, in 2022 the GDLS prototype won out over BAE Systems’ design. That winning vehicle is crewed by four soldiers — a commander, a gunner, a loader, and a driver — and includes the XM35 105 mm cannon, a coaxial machine gun, and a diesel engine, according to the company and the service.
The Army devised plans for the Booker fleet before Russia invaded Ukraine, and Norman said the service hasn’t massively overhauled its design to address observations out of that war. (However, it is using those findings for work on the future Abrams tank and Bradley replacement vehicle.)
“Coming out of Ukraine, there have not been significant design adjustments made,” Norman said.
“I know that the 82nd airborne and the 18th airborne corps are really excited about the capability that this platform brings to the light infantry combined arms team. … It’ll be really good for the Army to put it through its paces through this operational test period,” he later added.
That said, the service and GDLS have worked on several vehicle fixes including two larger items: toxic fumes and cooling.
In the fiscal 2022 Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) report, for example, the office noted that after soldiers fired the XM35 105 mm cannon, the vehicle filled with “high levels of toxic fumes.”
Norman explained that this happened because those 105 mm shells were “now sitting in the floor of the vehicle” and residual propellant was burning off.
“It’s not a new problem for the MPF and Booker but certainly the understanding of the potential health risks of those fumes is better understood now than it was when those rounds were designed decades ago,” he added.
To mitigate harm to soldiers inside the combat vehicle, GDLS developed a different ventilation configuration that extracts those fumes more rapidly, and directs them away from the crew.
“Those toxic fumes are now at a safe level,” Norman added.
The second big change involved fixing the Booker’s cooling system towards the back of the vehicle.
“There wasn’t enough airflow going through some radiators … and that was redesigned to make sure that the engine, the transmission and all of the fluids for the vehicle were getting sufficient cooling,” Norman said. “[GDLS has] done that work and those changes have been cut into the production vehicles and then been retrofitted on the earlier vehicles.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Breaking Defense.com)
14 May 24. France orders first tranche of Arquus transport trucks.
In a deal with Arquus worth €120m, the DGA ordered a new generation of tank trucks to replace its legacy fleet.
France’s defence procurement arm, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), has placed a €120m ($129.6m) order for its first tranche of new generation tank transportation vehicles with Arquus, a trilateral venture between Renault Trucks Defense, Acmat and Panhard.
These vehicles will carry numerous container tanks; this should not be mistaken for the platform.
Initially the French Army, Air and Space Forces will induct 70 8×8 all-terrain carriers – the first tranche of 376 vehicles to be delivered in total between 2024 and 2030.
This versatile and rigid vehicle can support a range of missions for armies, such as logistics and strategic transport, carrying tankers and systems, or vehicle breakdown recovery.
Arquus will work alongside Magyar (tank manufacturer) and Desautel (fire protection services).
- Mass transport trucks with a 20m³ tank and a single line supply. These will all have a protected cabin;
- Multi-purpose trucks with a 12m³ tank and four line supply. These will have either protected or unprotected cabins.
These new generation carriers will gradually replace the Armed Forces’ existing CBH385, TRM 10000 ACH tanker trucks (tank-helicopter refueler) and CCP10.
“They will offer greater capacity fuel carriage and a better level of protection of crews against threats of the battlefield,” the DGA suggested.
Currently, the French Army operate 899 8×8 multi-purpose carriers that perform logistical and multi-purpose missions according to GlobalData intelligence. They are manufactured by the Italian Iveco company and have armour level 2 STANAG 4569 mine and ballistic protection.
The new generation Arquus carriers will also gradually replace the Armed Forces’ other vehicles, including the CBH385, TRM 10000 ACH tanker trucks (tank-helicopter refueler) and CCP10, the DGA confirmed.
Arquus has a well-established industrial base based solely within France specially designed for military applications.
The 8×8 carrier is equipped with ATC (Automatic Traction Control) electronic power train management, giving optimum mobility on all types of terrain. At the same time it provides savings on fuel consumption, tyres and axle wear. It can be automated and hybridised on request with other supplementary Arquus technologies. To ensure the safety of the crew, Arquus offers a ballistic and mine-protected cab version in compliance with STANAG 4569, the same level as its existing trucks.
(Source: airforce-technology.com)
11 May 24. UK presses on with disposal of Warrior fighting vehicles. Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, recently directed an inquiry towards the Ministry of Defence concerning the status of the Warrior infantry fighting vehicles.
Despite a land war in Europe and previous plans to modernise the fleet, over 80 Warrior infantry fighting vehicles are scheduled for disposal next year, with the remainder set to be scrapped by the middle of the end of the decade.
On 25 April 2024, Lewis inquired about the number of these vehicles currently held by the armed forces and those earmarked for disposal.
James Cartlidge MP, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, responded to the query on 10 May, offering detailed numbers and future plans.
“There are currently 632 Warrior platforms held by the Armed Forces. 80 platforms are awaiting disposal, with nine more platforms due a decision for disposal during the financial year 2024-25,” Cartlidge stated. He also noted that this aligns with “planned fleet reductions laid out within the Integrated Review 2021.”
It’s pertinent to note the historical efforts made towards modernising these platforms. The British Army had initiated the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) to upgrade 380 Warriors with enhancements such as the Warrior Modular Protection System (WMPS) and Warrior Enhanced Electronic Architecture (WEEA). The programme aimed to equip 245 vehicles with a new turret and weapon system under the Warrior Fightability Lethality Improvement Programme (WFLIP), extending the service life of the vehicles to 2040.
However, despite these ambitious plans, the WCSP faced numerous challenges including budget constraints and delays. By March 2020, the programme was still in the “demonstration phase” with over £430 m spent and no set in-service date.
In March 2021, the Ministry of Defence ultimately announced the cancellation of the WCSP, deciding instead to replace the Warrior vehicles with the Boxer armoured fighting vehicles by the middle of the decade. (Source: UKDJ)
10 May 24. Nigerian military receives first locally produced Mengshi vehicles. The Nigerian Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 9 May that 20 locally produced armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were handed over in a ceremony attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa at Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja the previous day.
It did not name the APCs or their manufacturer, saying only that the vehicles are an improved version with better weapons and communications systems. However, it released photographs showing light armoured vehicles that looked like the Mengshi made by Chinese company Dongfeng, but with the badge of the Nigerian company Equipment and Protective Applications International Limited (EPAIL).
The Nigerian Army has operated Mengshis since at least November 2021, when a consignment was seen at Lagos’ port.
EPAIL announced the handover the following day. “We had the privilege of delivering 20 cutting-edge Light Tactical Armoured Vehicles (LTAVs) to the Defence Headquarters, representing a pivotal moment in our nation’s fight against insecurity,” it said in a Facebook post. “By producing these LTAVs domestically, we contribute to Nigeria’s journey towards self-sufficiency.” (Source: Janes)
13 May 24. US Army Rethinks Survivability for Tactical Wheeled Vehicles. Brig. Gen. Beth Behn, the Army’s chief of transportation, spent a large chunk of 2023 in eastern Ukraine observing the ongoing war there before taking over her current role.
What she saw changed her thinking about the some 200,000 tactical wheeled vehicles her command employs to move soldiers and supplies on battlefields.
“I came back from Ukraine with my hair on fire to modernize our doctrine, our training and, of course, our equipment,” she said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s annual Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference held recently on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Her main takeaway: what the Army has been predicting as the battlefield of 2030 is here and now in Ukraine.
The words “future operating environment” are already moot, she said.
“This is an expanded battlefield in terms of time, geography, domains and actors. So, we’ve got to think about minimizing the size and the visibility of our support areas. We’ve got to mask our sustainment efforts. We’ve got to frequently relocate stocks or support capabilities. If you can be seen, you can be targeted. And if you can be targeted, you had better be able to hide or move fast,” she said.
As one of the leaders who shapes requirements for the Army’s small, medium and heavy tactical wheeled vehicles, she had a long to-do list to modernize the fleets and make them more survivable.
New armor was absent from the list.
First, they must operate over extended or exposed lines of communication.
They must be able to extend their range without increasing fuel demand.
“We’ve got to get beyond reactive maintenance and get to a proactive decision-based approach,” she said.
Artificial intelligence can be used for that and to chart ideal routes to minimize exposure and save fuel.
Advanced manufacturing should be used to create parts to sustain tactical wheeled vehicles during widely distributed operations.
They must be more mobile, and they have got to be able to integrate advanced communications equipment and maintain the ability to mount weapon systems or other kits and then traverse rough terrain off or on improved roads.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she concluded with perhaps one of the more notable understatements of the conference.
Brig. Gen. Samuel Peterson, program executive officer for combat support and combat service support, is the Army’s point person in charge of modernizing the service’s tactical wheeled vehicle fleets.
The office has four modernization priorities: autonomy, electrification, fuel demand reduction and predictive logistics, he said.
“These are the capabilities that are going to enable us to succeed in a multi-domain environment. And we need industry’s partnership on all of these fronts,” he added.
As far as autonomy and electrification, the Army has put out a lot of requests for information to contractors, but some testing activities were delayed until Congress finally passed a fiscal year 2024 defense appropriation in March.
Steve Roberts, project lead for integration in Program Executive Office Combat Support and Combat Service Support, said for now the Army is going after “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to saving fuel. One example is anti-idling systems. Like what’s available in the consumer market, these systems turn the engine off but can keep things on like heaters, air conditioners and other vital systems using lithium-ion batteries.
“That way you can sit on station for three, four hours without running that engine” while keeping sensors, radios and climate control systems running, he said.
The next step is hybridization, which can give a truck extra power. The program executive office is experimenting with the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles and a vehicle integration power kit that can draw about 120 kilowatts off the vehicles. One use case showed that the trucks’ engines could help power a microgrid and reduce generator usage, he said.
“There is real operational savings by going to these electrified vehicles,” he said.
As far as all-electric, the ability at the tactical edge to recharge vehicles with large battery packs — needed even for light vehicles — is not feasible at this time, Roberts said. “Each one of these steps — the crawl, walk, run — builds on the next, and we learn from them,” he said.
As far as robotic systems, the Army has kicked off the Autonomous Transport Vehicle System program — a follow-on to the Leader-Follower program, which has one truck in a convoy with a driver and the rest operating autonomously.
The Army issued three contracts for companies that are currently doing preliminary design review ahead of building prototypes, said Kyle Bruner, project manager for force projection.
Carnegie Robotics, Neya Systems and Robotic Research have been tapped by the Defense Innovation Unit and the PEO in a joint effort to develop autonomy kits called the Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System, or GEARS, for the Palletized Load System. The kits could later be adapted for other types of vehicles, a DIU press release stated. The goal is to have the first unit equipped by fiscal year 2026, Bruner said.
Not on the priorities list, but still vitally important, is to harden the cybersecurity requirements as potential opponents launch ever more sophisticated electronic warfare attacks, Peterson said.
Adversaries are growing increasingly more sophisticated, he said. “If you look at some of the current capabilities and newer aspects of our fleet, they have to be cyber hardened to be able to withstand those threats on the battlefield,” he added.
As far as individual programs, the most high-profile program is the competition to replace the Common Tactical Truck.
The program has pitted some of the biggest names in military vehicles against each other. Navistar Defense, Oshkosh Defense, Mack Defense and a partnership of American Rheinmetall Vehicles and GM Defense have delivered their trucks to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland under a middle-tier acquisition framework that allows the Army to issue contracts for rapid prototypes, said Alvin Bing III, product lead for the program.
“We’re in the phase of assessing and testing these assets. We really want to see what is in the realm of possible to explore potential solutions,” he said.
The Army is looking to hand the prototypes over to soldiers this summer so they can provide feedback, he said.
Afterwards, the Army will sort through all the data and what it learned to come up with requirements and a path forward for the acquisition. The service took a similar approach when it developed with the Marine Corps its Humvee replacement, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV.
“That will allow us to take advantage of what’s available commercially and stay invested in continuous improvement to get advanced technologies more rapidly into our fleet as we move forward,” Bing said.
Meanwhile, the JLTV is currently in a transition phase. The Joint Program Office recompeted the contract and AM General — the Humvee’s maker — beat out Oshkosh in 2023 to build an upgraded version known as the A2.
The Joint Program Office, Oshkosh and AM General are currently in the throes of transitioning from one manufacturer to another, a process that has suffered some “headwinds,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christopher Stephenson, the JPO’s product manager for vehicle systems.
The two services purchased the JLTV’s technical data rights from Oshkosh to recompete the program every six years to get the best possible deal for the services and, by extension, the taxpayers.
AM General won the recompete in February 2023 with a contract valued at $8.6bn for up to 20,682 JLTVs and 9,883 trailers. The company is now in a two-year transition period to prepare for production.
“As far as the actual day-to-day challenges of this two-year transition, I think each manufacturer is having unique headwinds that I think [are] appropriate for the phases,” Stephenson said, declining to spell out the speed bumps the two manufacturers are hitting.
But he said there are no showstoppers or any problems that can’t be solved by the time Oshkosh must end its JLTV production in September 2025.
“The good news is we have forcing functions to keep the momentum going,” he said.
The A2 version will have some improvements over the first iteration including: an L5P Duramax engine to provide better fuel economy without losing performance; a simplified electric architecture; noise reduction inside and outside the vehicle; and improved corrosion protection.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps is pursuing a Medium Tactical Truck, similar in size and weight to the Army’s Common Tactical Truck.
Peterson was asked if the Marines and the Army might come together and duplicate the success of the JLTV and form a joint program. He suggested that it was up to the Marines, although he did not want to speak for them.
“I’ve got Marines embedded in my formations. … We’re closely partnered with them, and we’re going to continue to inform each other through our prototyping phase and allow the Marine Corps to come to that decision in their own time,” Peterson said. ND. (Source: Paulo Dominonni via LinkedIn)
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