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22 Feb 18. Politicians out in force as LAND 400 Phase 2 decision looms.
Victorian federal politicians have come out in support of BAE Systems Australia’s LAND 400 Phase 2 bid, as rumours circulate that the government’s National Security Committee is set to decide on the project as early as next week.
Federal ministers Alan Tudge, Tim Wilson, Chris Crewther, Michael Sukkar, Kevin Andrews and senator Jane Hume converged on RUAG Australia’s office at Bayswater on Wednesday for the announcement that, should BAE Systems secure the project, RUAG Australia will produce world-leading ballistic armour for the 225 Australian Army combat reconnaissance vehicles (CRVs).
Under the agreement, RUAG Switzerland will transfer the technology to RUAG Australia to enable the armour to be produced locally, a move that would boost Australia’s capability in advanced protection solutions. The arrangement would also allow for RUAG Australia to export the ballistic armour.
BAE Systems is competing against Rheinmetall to secure the project. BAE Systems has offered the AMV-35 with a commitment to build the vehicles in Victoria, while Rheinmetall has offered its Boxer CRV and has promised to build them in Queensland.
In the last week, BAE Systems has announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of Melbourne, offering its students the opportunity to do graduate placements, internships and research and development (R&D) activities at its proposed state-of-the-art manufacturing and innovation centre at Fishermans Bend.
A new campaign by the state’s Labor government was also launched recently, including billboards throughout Canberra aiming to promote the strengths of Victoria’s defence industry and record in manufacturing military vehicles.
The LAND 400 Phase 2 project has become highly politicised over the past few months, with accusations that the project will come down to pork-barrelling in marginal seats.
Victoria’s acting Minister for Trade and Investment Ben Carroll said the state is fearful the decision will be based on political point-scoring rather than merit.
“We’re fighting hard for Victorian jobs – we have the skills and proven track record needed for this critical project,” Minister Carroll said.
“This is an opportunity for Malcolm Turnbull to repair some of the damage his party caused when they abandoned Victoria’s auto workers.
“This decision should be made in the best interests of our defence force, our troops and our country. It should not be made in the best interests of Malcolm Turnbull’s political career.”
The state government has also argued the recent dumping of Victoria’s federal MP Darren Chester as infrastructure minister in favour of Queensland’s John McVeigh has put the LAND 400 Phase 2 project at risk of being jeopardised by political interests.
“The Andrews Labor government has grave fears that Malcolm Turnbull’s dumping of Victorian Nationals MP Darren Chester paves the way for Victoria to be frozen out of the vitally important LAND 400 Phase 2 defence contract,” Minister for Trade and Investment Philip Dalidakis said in December last year.
“The LAND 400 contract is crucial to our national interest and instead of being awarded on merit, it looks increasingly likely that it will go to Queensland as a naked pork-barrelling exercise designed to help save Coalition seats at the next federal election.”
Victoria’s defence sector is estimated to be worth $8bn to the local economy every year, and is made up of about 20,000 people and more than 400 businesses. Under the project, which is worth up to $5bn, 2,000 jobs are expected to be created. (Source: Defence Connect)
22 Feb 18. Jordan restructures its armoured formations. Key Points:
- The Royal Jordanian Army is restructuring its armoured units with the addition of second-hand AFVs from Italy and Germany
- Its ex-British Army Challenger 1 MBTs will be retired
The Royal Jordanian Army (RJA) is restructuring its armoured forces, with second-hand Iveco Centauro 105 mm 8×8 Mobile Gun Systems (MGSs) and Rheinmetall Landsysteme Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) equipping new units and the RJA’s Challenger 1 MBTs being retired. Details of the restructuring were given at the recent IQPC International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) Conference, held in London from 22–25 January, by a representative of the King Abdullah II 3rd Armoured Division. The RJA currently has eight battalions of MBTs, four of which are equipped with a total of 182 US-supplied General Dynamics Land Systems M60A3s armed with 105 mm M68 rifled tank guns that have been upgraded with a Raytheon Integrated Fire Control System (IFCS).
The other four battalions are equipped with ex-British Army Challenger 1s, which are known locally as Al Hussein MBTs. Around 400 of these had been delivered by 2004, although it is unlikely that many are still in service.
Although the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) has developed various firepower upgrades for the Al Hussein MBT, none of these ever entered service. Therefore the Al Husseins will now be phased out of service, with only the M60A3s remaining in the RJA inventory.
Meanwhile, Jordan has already taken delivery of 141 ex-Italian Army Centauros, of which 80 are expected to be deployed by two battalions, with the remainder used for spares and training. The Centauros fire the same family of 105 mm ammunition as the upgraded M60A3 MBTs and, as they are wheeled, have greater strategic mobility, since they can be rapidly deployed without requiring a heavy equipment transporters. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Feb 18. Centaur emerges as MTRS Inc II solution. Endeavor Robotics has revealed details of its new Centaur unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), which is the platform chosen to fill the US Army’s MTRS Inc II requirement.
Centaur is a mid-sized, tracked platform that has been designed to carry out a range of missions, including ordnance disposal, surveillance and reconnaissance, and CBRNE/HazMat detection.
Heavier than the company’s well-known PackBot, the vehicle weighs less than 74 kg and can be deployed in under five minutes, according to the company. It has a payload capacity of 68 kg and an operating endurance of up to 8 hours when using standard military batteries.
(Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Feb 18. Challenger 2 MBT LEP selection draws closer. The 24-month Assessment Phase (AP) to determine the winning bidder for the British Army Challenger 2 main battle tank (MBT) Life Extension Programme (LEP) is due to be completed at the end of 2018. Two competitors – a BAE Systems-led team that includes General Dynamics Land Systems UK, and Rheinmetall – are bidding for the opportunity to update 227 Challenger 2 MBTs operated by the service’s three Armoured Infantry Brigades as well as training contingents in Canada and the United Kingdom. Both companies have been provided with two Challenger 2 MBTs for the assessment, with one of these being a fully functional vehicle while the other will be used as a demonstrator for new subsystems that will replace obsolescent or end of life equipment. These include stabilised sighting systems for the commander and gunner, associated control handles, gun control equipment, elements of the fire-control system, and crew displays. Team Challenger 2 will utilise turret elements developed for the Ajax reconnaissance vehicle destined for British Army service, while Rheinmetall will leverage on its turret development experience with the Leopard 2 MBT and its other armoured vehicles. Both competitors are also expected to offer potential firepower enhancements as a potential add-on to the LEP. The invitation to tender (ITT) for the Demonstration, Manufacture and In Service (DMI) phase is expected to be released around August 2018. Industry response is required to be submitted to the UK Ministry of Defence’s (UK MoD’s) Defence Equipment and Support organisation in December 2018 with a potential contract award in mid-2019. Each of the British Army’s three Armoured Infantry Brigades are assigned with a Challenger 2 regiment with a total of 56 MBTs, comprising three 18-vehicle squadrons. Two vehicles are attached to the respective regimental headquarters. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Feb 18. Turkey to develop unmanned tanks, president says. Turkey’s president says the country will develop unmanned tanks to minimize risks to soldiers in combat. Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the plan Wednesday during a speech delivered at a conference on Turkey’s five-year development plan. His comments came as Turkey’s military is carrying out a cross-border offensive in Syria to clear a border enclave of Syrian Kurdish rebels. “We need to be able to manufacture unmanned tanks, and we will do this,” he said. “We are becoming a country that is catching this technology.” The Turkish leader said that U.S. refusal to provide Turkey with drones in the past had forced the country to develop and produce its own. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
21 Feb 18. Chief Executive Officer of Armored Vehicle Company Sentenced to More Than Five Years in Prison for Role in Scheme to Defraud the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that William Whyte, 72, of King City, Ontario, the owner and CEO of Armet Armored Vehicles of Danville, Virginia, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for his role in orchestrating a scheme to defraud the United States by providing the U.S. Department of Defense with armored gun trucks that did not meet ballistic and blast protection requirements set out in the company’s contracts with the United States. U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser of the Western District of Virginia sentenced Whyte, who was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and to pay restitution in the amount of $2,019,454.36. On Oct. 9, 2017, after a two-week trial, Whyte was found guilty of three counts of major fraud against the United States, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of criminal false claims. Whyte was charged by an indictment in July 2012. (Source: glstrade.com)
21 Feb 18. Latvian MoD completes Stage I of procedure for 4×4 tactical vehicle procurement. The Ministry of Defence of Latvia (MoD) has completed Stage I of the negotiated procedure for the acquisition of light and medium, high-mobility, armoured four-wheel drive 4×4 tactical vehicles.
Based on the competition qualification criteria, the Latvian MoD has selected six eligible bidders to enter the Phase II of negotiated procedure. A total of 12 bids were submitted for the negotiated procedure.
The selected companies are Paramount Group in South Africa, Israel Aerospace Industries suppliers consortium in Israel, AS UPB in Latvia, Otokar in Turkey, Oy Sisu Auto in Finland, and AM General and Oshkosh Defence in the US.
According to the Defence and Security Procurement Law, the negotiated procedure needs to be carried out in two stages, of which the first stage, or the pre-selection of bidders, has now been completed.
During the second stage of the negotiated procedure, selected bidders will be required to offer a detailed bid and proposed vehicles for testing.
Following this, a complete evaluation of contributions and testing of proposed vehicles will be carried out by the procurement committee in near-combat training conditions in order to verify the compliance of proposed vehicles with operational requirements of the Latvian National Armed Forces.
As well as promoting the tactical mobility of the Latvian Army, the 4×4 vehicles will play a major role in the implementation of artillery, air defence and National Guard development projects.
In addition, the vehicles are required to be suitable for personnel and cargo transportation, command and control, and medical support missions.
(Source: army-technology.com)
21 Feb 18. India’s MoD approves purchase of additional ICVs. India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) approved procurements worth INR18.50bn (USD286m) for the Indian Army (IA) and the Indian Navy (IN) on 20 February. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which is headed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, cleared the acquisition of 156 licence-built BMP-2/2K Sarath infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) for INR11.25bn from the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
The ICV procurement for the IA “will meet the operational requirement of troops for [the] rapid deployment of mechanised forces”, the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a statement.
The new platforms will supplement the 693 BMP-2/2Ks that are being upgraded to BMP-2M standard at the OFB’s Medak unit in southern India, where around 1,250 of them were licence-built between 1987 and 2007.
(Source: IHS Jane’s)
20 Feb 18. Tank and armour upgrades on the agenda. An industry consultation day will be held in Melbourne today for Australian businesses looking to score a piece of the work in Defence’s Main Battle Tank Upgrade and Under Armour Breaching and Bridging projects.
Delegates representing 131 companies, the majority of which are from Australia, are participating in the event.
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said the event, hosted by the Centre of Defence Industry Capability (CDIC), will help local businesses get involved in building up Australia’s military capability.
“Small and medium enterprises will be able to engage with Centre of Defence Industry Capability at this event, to discuss potential Australian innovative solutions they can offer for integration into the capability,” Minister Pyne said.
“With a combined value of approximately $2bn, these projects are an opportunity for Australian companies to win work and contribute to Army’s future Armoured Fighting Vehicle capability. Early industry engagement is crucial for Defence to understand potential future industry participation in capability development and delivery.”
The projects, known as LAND 907 Phase 2 and LAND 8160 Phase 1, are worth up to $2bn.
Under the LAND 907 Phase 1 project, Defence acquired 59 M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management Situational Awareness Abrams tanks, 13 M88 Hercules Armoured Recovery Vehicles, and training and support systems including simulators, special tools, test equipment, spares and ammunition. The LAND 907 Phase 2 project, budgeted for $750m to $1bn, will look at providing the Australian Army with an upgraded Main Battle Tank (MBT) capability, with the M1A1 to be upgraded to a M1A2 variant and M88A2 to be upgraded to an M88A3 variant.
Under the LAND 8160 Phase 1 project, Defence is seeking to acquire and armoured engineering system for the Army to provide and under armour obstacle breaching and bridging capability to support mounted forces. The capability will be based on a M1 tank chassis and may be delivered by three variants: an Armoured Breacher Vehicle, an Armoured Bridge Launcher and an Armoured Engineering Vehicle (AEV).
The breacher vehicle’s main role will be to mechanically and explosively breach minefields and clear obstacles, while the armour bridge launcher will be able to cross wet or dry gaps and allow for forward movement in the battlefield. An AEV typically features a large dozer blade or mine ploughs, a large calibre demolition cannon, augers, winches, excavator arms and cranes or lifting booms. (Source: Defence Connect)
19 Feb 18. Iraq Receives T-90 Main Battle Tanks. Iraq has taken delivery of the first batch of T-90 main battle tanks and possibly BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles as well. Earlier in February, the Russian Ambassador to Iraq, Maxim Maksimov, confirmed that deliveries of the T-90 tanks would be occurring soon. The delivery occurred late last week, when the shipment of tanks was delivered to Umm Qasr, in southern Iraq, as confirmed by images released from the port. The number of tanks delivered has not been confirmed, but in mid-2017, manufacturer UralVagonZavod released its annual report suggesting that 73 T-90S/SK tanks would be supplied to Iraq in 2017. Izvestia reported that this is only the first batch and that subsequent deliveries would occur. Iraq may ultimately acquire hundreds of T-90s.
In addition to the tanks, Iraq may well have taken a delivery of a batch of BMP-3s. The web resource ‘Mena Defense’ reported over the weekend, “The Iraqi army has recently received a batch of about 10 BMP 3 armored vehicles, which have been concomitant with the delivery of T90S and SK tanks. Iraq received last week a first batch of 10 T90 S and SK on the 73 ordered.”
The new military hardware will be used to support the Iraqi military’s ongoing efforts against the Islamic State, which has largely been routed from the population centers it captured in 2014 and 2015. Nevertheless, the group remains a threat to Iraqi security and has continued to carry out asymmetric operations against Iraqi forces.
As a result of fighting with the Islamic State, the Iraqi military has lost a significant amount of military vehicles, either to destruction or capture by the insurgents. Furthermore, the U.S. has reportedly cut off support services for Iraq’s M1A1 main battle tanks after several of these emerged under the control of Hashd al-Shaabi, an umbrella group of pro-government militias nominally subordinate to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The status of American support for the M1A1s is unclear; requests for comment were not responded to. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Forecast International)
17 Feb 18. On future patrols, this robot may join you. Taking point in patrol – the term for assuming the most vulnerable position – is a deadly proposition. It requires an acute awareness of the situation, the ability to move out of harm’s way as soon as things go south, and the real risk that a single false step could set off an explosive and lead to sudden incapacitation or death. This is true for people patrolling in vehicles, and it is true for humans in combat on foot. As with all things first to the battle, why not replace this job with a robot?
Meet the Probot Unmanned Ground Vehicle, from Singapore’s ST Kinetics. Built on the Probot body from Israel’s Roboteam, the ST Kinetics version adds a remote control weapon station, turning the utility platform into an armed machine. This armed Probot has a top speed of just over 5 mph, and can operate for up to 8 hours on battery power.
We shouldn’t think of the Probot as anything like a properly autonomous or independent vehicle; it’s controlled by an operator no further than roughly 1,600 feet from the robot. That puts a human on the trigger of the gun, while the machine can acquire and track targets on its own. The Probot can be steered directly, can adopt a semi-autonomous mode, or can follow another person or vehicle.
Like the combat robots we’ve seen used in Ukraine, the Probot is not replacing infantry any time soon. Instead, it’s a new capability, a first-around-the-corner tool that can shoot back, or that doesn’t become a tragedy when it runs over a buried explosive. It probably won’t replace anyone in a squad, but it might turn one squadmate into a robot-operator. To truly start replacing people on patrol, we’ll need to see a lot more autonomy than the robots presently have. But the bodies are ready, and autonomy is as much a software problem as anything else, so expect that to be the direction these robots take in the future. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
19 Feb 18. Paramount Combat Systems seeks business rescue. A division of South Africa’s Paramount Group has voluntarily entered into business rescue, it has been revealed. A statement provided to Jane’s on 19 February said that the company had made the decision, which affected part of the company’s South African armoured vehicle manufacturing business, Paramount Combat Systems (Pty) Ltd. The business rescue process is only affecting one of its sites in Isando, Gauteng, with other parts of the company – including other armoured vehicle manufacturing operations in South Africa and around the world – unaffected by the decision.
“This business unit has been put under pressure by delays in revenue collection, and by the challenges of operating an export orientated industrial facility in South Africa in an environment of intense political uncertainty. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
19 Feb 18. Response to MoD FoI 12 January in which you requested the following information:
- How many Land Rover engines were changed between 2014 -2017
- What was the cost?
- Which companies were under contract
- What was the Meantime Between failure
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
A search for the information has now been completed within the Ministry of Defence, and I can confirm that all of the information in scope of your request is held. I advised you in my letter dated 9 February that some of the information in your request may fall under Section 43 (commercial interests), a qualified exemption. A Public Interest Test has now been conducted: please see below the list of your questions and the relevant responses or the reason why the information cannot be disclosed.
- How many Land Rover engines were changed between 2014 -2017
Between 2014-2017 (inclusive), a total of 1962 Land Rover engines were changed
- What was the cost?
I have considered the release of this information under section 43 of the FOIA: Commercial Interests, part (2): Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it). The balance of the Public Interest Test concluded that whilst there is limited public interest in disclosing this information, releasing the total cost of a specific number of Land Rover engines would be likely to commercially prejudice the current contractor.
- Which companies were under contract
The Land Rover engine contract is with Caterpillar Defence Products.
- What was the Meantime Between failure
The Mean Variance Between Failure refers to the average time that a part of the engine system fails and causes the engine to be unable to operate. For example, this could be a small, system, or major component. In the majority of cases, the engine is repairable; the engine is changed to allow the vehicle to continue on its mission, and the fault is fixed later.
The Mean Variance Between Failure (MVBF) for Land Rover engines is 35,800km. Please note that this is a statistically derived figure based on the number of failures for a given usage. MVBF figures do not account for failures through enemy action or those repaired without demanding Equipment Support (ES) materiel. (Source: U.K. MoD)
BATTLESPACE Comment: These figures are a particularly shocking indictment of MoD contracting and overspend. The average life of these engines before overhaul equates to 22,245 miles which in civil markets would have just run the engine in! Any bidder in the civil market bidding such a contract on these terms to overhaul engines on these terms would be laughed out of Court! The MoD is currently looking to renew the Land Rover engine contract at a cost of some £12 m per year on these terms. Any wise bidder would take a close look and slash the amount by at least half to achieve cost and efficiency savings.
16 Feb 18. Analysis: What happened to Russia’s new armoured vehicles? Almost three years after the high-profile public debut of Russia’s new armoured platforms – the Armata, the Kurganets-25 and Bumerang families – their large-scale procurement for the Russian military still appears to be a distant prospect.
In May 2015, when the new armoured vehicles became the stars of Russia’s Red Square Victory Day parade in Moscow, they were touted as almost complete products, ready to be launched into production. At the time, observers noted that these vehicles would give Russia a significant technological edge over NATO forces.
But this now appears to have been presumptuous. The vehicles have suffered from funding problems, technical issues and conceptual changes that have caused serious delays to the development effort, and the follow-on launch into production and fielding into regular service.
According to Andrey Frolov of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), the previous State Armament Programme in Russia (2015-2020) prioritised air force and navy modernisation, while land forces renewal had secondary importance.
This changed with the new State Armament Programme, covering the period until 2025, which called for massive investments in purchasing new-generation armour equipment for both land forces and airborne troops. But, as Frolov hinted to Shephard, the development funding so far allocated by the Russian MoD for new armour programmes has proved insufficient for a normal development tempo.
He pointed out that the Armata, Kurganets-25 and Bumerang are brand-new, with new systems, armaments and structures, and do not rely on off-the shelf technology solutions.
This, in turn, has caused difficulties and delays during the developmental phase because it has also required exhaustive testing at system and sub-system level, in addition to the end-production testing effort.
The Kurganets-25 vehicle, a heavy tracked IFV platform that is supposed to replace the in-service BMP-2. (Photo: Russian MoD)
At the same time, as Frolov noted, the financial situation of the companies dealing with the development of these new-generation armour platforms is varied. Some of the companies are experiencing financial difficulties or have suffered from poor management, which has only served to compound issues.
Furthermore, the initial technical specifications of the Russian MoD were very stringent and subsequently had to undergo several amendments that caused an adverse effect on programme schedules.
The Armata heavy tracked platform, developed by Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), is the flagship of the Russian armour recapitalisation effort. It covers a family of three combat vehicles using a common tracked platform – the T-14 MBT, T-15 heavyweight IFV and the T-16 armoured recovery vehicle.
The T-14 has been described as a revolutionary combat vehicle with unmanned turret and crew accommodated in an armoured capsule in the hull for better protection. The tank has all-new sophisticated passive and active protection systems and is equipped for network centric operations.
Officially, the T-14’s development effort is proceeding forward on schedule, and this has been claimed by the Russian Land Forces commander-in-chief, Col Gen Oleg Salykov in November 2017.
He also reconfirmed previously released information that an experimental batch of 100 vehicles is set to be delivered for field testing with that effort slated for completion by 2020. Russia’s TASS news agency reported in February 2018 that Russian officials had confirmed an order for two battalions of T-14s and a battalion of T-15s, possibly the test batch vehicles.
In mid-January, TASS also reported that the T-14’s full-scale production is set to begin after 2020, which tends to indicate that it would not start before the conclusion of field testing efforts.
There is no information yet on any specific problems encountered during the T-14’s testing. There is even more uncertainty surrounding the T-15 IFV, with elements such as the turret configuration still unknown.
It has been demonstrated so far only with the Bumerang-BM turret armed with a 30mm cannon and ATGMs, but it had been expected that the production-standard vehicles would feature a more powerful armament.
The Kurganets-25 medium-class tracked platform, developed by Traktornye Zavody, appears to have the most criticism levelled against it among all the new generation platforms in development.
It was used as the basis for the B-11 IFV and B-10 APC, both criticised by Russian military officers during 2015 for their significant size, much larger than today’s BMP-2 and BMP-3 used by the Russian Land Forces. A redesigned platform was expected to begin testing in 2017 but there is little evidence that this test effort has started.
In the spring of 2017, Russia’s deputy minister of defence responsible for procurement Yury Borisov said that Kurganets-25 production had been postponed until 2021.
In August that year, the project’s reputation suffered a serious blow when one of the retired designers of the successful BMP-1/2/3 IFV family, Danil Ralin, had claimed in front of Russian media outlets that the Kurganets-25 was a flawed project and should be abandoned.
Meanwhile, little is known about the development and testing of the Bumerang wheeled 8×8 platform developed by VPK. So far it has only been shown in the IFV version, dubbed K-17. It was announced during its public debut in 2015 that the K-17’s production is set to be launched after 2019.
Official Russian military sources, however, proved reluctant to confirm or update this timeframe in 2016 and 2017. Photos were publicly released in 2016 showing the K-17’s testing effort in progress, with the vehicle sporting some serious design alterations compared to the initial version shown in Moscow during the 2015 V-Day military parade. According to Frolov, this development and testing effort of Russia’s new platforms has proved to be a protracted and expensive undertaking. As a result of these delays, the Russian military has had no other choice but to continue placing large-scale orders for upgraded versions of Soviet-era amour, which is cheaper and free from the technical complexity of the new generation platforms.
In the recent years, the Russian MoD has invested heavily in upgrading its existing armour inventory such as the T-72 MBT and BMP-2 IFV and continues to place orders for newly-built T-90 MBTs and BMP-3 IFVs.
These hefty investments in proven designs are a likely sign that the army’s next-generation armour platforms, including the Armata, Kurganets-25 and Bumerang families, are still being regarded by the Russian military leadership as distant prospects. (Source: Shephard)
15 Feb 18. US Army’s next-gen combat vehicle prototyping to be accelerated. The U.S. Army’s prototyping effort to inform a Next-Generation Combat Vehicle will be accelerated, according to fiscal 2019 service budget documents released this week.
“We want to pull a lot of things forward like the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle,” Army Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Feb. 15. “We can’t wait 15 years. We’ve got to pull that forward because I’m looking at the National Defense Strategy, I’m looking at those countries and I know I have to get there sooner.”
The recently released National Defense Strategy prioritizes staying ahead of peer adversaries Russia and China.
The Army named NGCV as one of its top-six modernization priorities that will be supported under the service’s new Futures Command expected to reach an initial operational capability this summer. A cross-functional team has already been formed to specifically address NGCV development.
The service has already started down a path to develop requirements to bring an NGCV to life with an initial fielding goal of 2035 that could replace potentially both the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Abrams tank. That was the plan a year ago, but the Army wants NGCV sooner, and accelerating the prototyping effort is the first step in reaching faster fielding goals.
The Army awarded a major prototyping effort to a team consisting of SAIC — the team lead — as well as Lockheed Martin, Moog Inc., GS Engineering, Inc., Hodges Transportation Inc. and Roush Industries in October 2017. The Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, is supporting the project.
The $700m contract has a period of performance over seven years and was going to lead to two prototypes by Sept. 30, 2022.
Yet, the service’s FY19 budget justification documents released Feb. 12 show the Army wishes to speed up that prototyping effort by at least a year.
In one section, the document states: “Current prototype build by TARDEC will be accelerated for delivery by FY2020.” In another section it reads: “TARDEC will take their existing contract using the [other transactional authority] and accelerate the [infantry fighting vehicle] build in order to deliver a first prototype by 1Q FY2021.”
A chart in the document shows the entire prototyping phase begins now and wraps up at the end of FY22. Requirements development will happen in tandem with the last few years of the prototyping effort — beginning in FY20 and ending in FY22 as well. A program-of-record start would not be far behind, likely kicking off in FY23 based on the average procurement process.
The Army is also injecting more funding into the NGCV prototyping effort to accommodate for the acceleration, budget documents show. In the FY18 budget request released last May, the service wanted to spend $32.7m in FY19. But the FY19 request asks for $119.4m.
From FY19 through FY22, the service wants to spend $207.4m for the prototyping effort and NGCV development, according to the new budget documents. In the FY18 request, the Army asked for $176.1m over the same time period.
Adding to the prototyping effort, the budget request this year shows the service wants, in FY19, to look at a series of subsystem demonstrators “building off of previous investment in ground combat acquisition and science and technology programs along with advanced technologies from industry and academia.”
Investments in FY19 will be influenced by an evaluation of an experimental demonstration of a closed-hatch infantry fighting vehicle and split-squad operations.
One of the aspects for NGCV under consideration is the possibility of splitting the squad.
Data from early synthetic prototyping capability to conduct soldier-in-the-loop virtual simulations of NGCV concepts and from the Future Fighting Vehicle and Squad Centric Mounted Maneuver efforts will inform investments in FY19 when maturing system-level concepts into a system-level experimental prototype, the documents state.
The NGCV cross-functional team and program management office will call for whitepapers in FY19 for industry to show technologies that will improve a combat vehicle to include “mobility, survivability, lethality, situational awareness, sensor fusion and demonstrate a path to autonomy,” according to the documents.
The acquisition strategy laid out in the budget documents states the project will continue to competitively award contracts.
Esper noted that in addition to NGCV acceleration, the Army is looking to speed up any timeline within its list of six priorities when it is able.
According to the budget documents, it appears some of the earlier prototyping efforts that will first emerge — besides Joint Multi-Role demonstrators for the Future Vertical Lift effort — will be new, enhanced night vision goggles and an enhanced Defense Advanced GPS Receiver Distributed Device, both in FY19.
The Army has budgeted $38m for advanced prototyping efforts across the six modernization priorities in FY19, but plans to spend even more next year — a total of $174.7m — according to budget documents, although it does not lay out what the service plans to focus on in FY20 prototyping efforts.
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