US Army begins evaluating OMFV proposals

Isa Khan · Apr 24, 2021

Industry teams have submitted their proposals for the US Army’s revamped Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) programme and are awaiting the service’s decision on which ones will receive approximately USD60 million for the concept design phase.

At least five teams submitted their information for the army’s Bradley infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) replacement effort by the mid-April deadline: BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), a Hanwha Defense-Oshkosh Defense team, Mettle Ops, and a Rheinmetall team. Each team’s paperwork included details about its systems engineering capabilities, and ability to model and simulate the design of a combat vehicle, and they begin fleshing out their respective designs if picked to move on.

The service has not revealed any details about the contenders for now but it plans to select up to five teams to proceed with phase two: a 15-months effort involving modelling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) design work.

“The OMFV remains our number one priority … and getting a replacement for the Bradley is paramount to our nation’s success on the battlefield,” director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) Cross-Functional Team Major General Ross Coffman told Janes on 2 March.

Broadly speaking the service’s aim is to provide teams with the flexibility to offer up innovative vehicles and has outlined nine vehicle characteristics ranked in descending importance: survivability, mobility, growth, lethality, weight, logistics, transportability, manning, and training. It is also asking how many vehicles it will take to move 30 soldiers. The only constraint is that each future vehicle must have a two-person crew, but soldiers in the back of the vehicle can use a ’third station’ to augment the crew, according to Maj Gen Coffman.