US Ground Forces have announced their readiness to accept offers from military design firms as part of the program to create a new OMFV infantry fighting vehicle.

The American defense media note that this step actually means restarting the OMFV program, as a result of which the country's army should have a new infantry fighting vehicle to replace the Bradle BMP, various modifications of which have been in service for almost 40 years.

By collecting proposals, the military expects to receive feedback from the enterprises of the US military-industrial complex before the competition, which is scheduled for the end of this year. Based on its results, the Pentagon intends to conclude five contracts with contractors for the creation of the OMFV machine, which will mark the next stage of the program.

Major General Brian Cummings, the head of the US Ground Forces ground combat systems program, said that this is to ensure that the technologies to be used at OMFV are “at the limit of their possibilities”.

“As we continue to develop this truly revolutionary machine for our military, we look forward to receiving feedback from the defense industry to find out what is now within the limits of the possible,” the Defense News quoted the general as saying.

In turn, Brigadier General Ross Koffman, head of the Pentagon’s Pentagon Multifunctional Combat Vehicle Development Team, added that for the project, “it’s extremely important to clearly define the necessary set of capabilities without overly complicating the design.”

“We want to create favorable conditions for the defense industry, while its representatives move forward and creatively approach the process in order to provide the Ground Forces with the innovative technologies and solutions necessary to bring our ideas to life - as regards the possibility of integrating the latest modern technologies, and in terms of space for the future growth of this platform. ”

Unsuccessful competition

It is worth noting that the Pentagon decided to hold a preliminary competition with the collection of proposals from defense industry enterprises after a previous attempt to launch the OMFV program failed. In 2019, the Ground Forces asked industrialists to submit ready-made prototypes for consideration, from which the two most promising ones had to be selected for the final.

However, by October 2019, only one participant remained in the competition - General Dymanics Land System. The rest dropped out due to the requirements for the future combat vehicle, and time constraints on the creation of a prototype.

  • German infantry fighting vehicle Lynx KF41 participating in the OMFV competition
  • © Rheinmetall

In January 2020, the Ground Forces announced the termination of the current iteration of the OMFV program and the revision of its parameters. This decision was criticized in Congress during the hearings on the approval of the country's defense budget for 2021, which took place in the spring.

So, the head of the subcommittee of the House of Representatives for Defense Procurement Peter Wikloski said that the OMFV program schedule after the restart will be two years late, and the funds allocated for it were wasted, while they could be spent on other defense programs.

Vikloski noted that the US Army launches on a regular basis, and then, without waiting for any result, closes expensive projects, spending taxpayer funds.

Also during the hearing, the question was raised about why the command of the Ground Forces did not stop the competition, when it was already known before the declared deadlines that some participants would not be able to participate in it. For example, the BAE Systems concern dropped out of it, and the Raytheon joint venture, Rheinmetall, did not manage to deliver its prototype, the Lynx 41 armored vehicle, to the United States on time.

Looking for a replacement

The OMFV program, apart from its next restart, was the third attempt in the past 20 years to replace the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, which was put into service during the Cold War.

Bradley was developed in response to the appearance in the Soviet Union of the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles that were fundamentally new at that time.

American military leaders were very concerned that the USSR had a machine that could quickly deliver soldiers to the battlefield, protecting them from enemy fire, as well as the potential impact of nuclear and chemical weapons. At the same time, the BMP-1 also served as a combat unit armed with a 73 mm cannon and anti-tank missile systems.

  • M2 Bradley fighting vehicles during exercises near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea
  • Reuters
  • © Jo Yong-Hak

At the same time, the U.S. has been armed with M113 armored personnel carriers since the Vietnam War, which did not have such capabilities. The development and adoption process of the Bradley M2 has also gained an ambiguous reputation over time: the story of the creation of the machine with numerous design modifications and the change of contractors even became the basis for the comedy film "Pentagon Wars" about the bureaucratic problems of the US army in the field of arms purchases.

Due to numerous revisions of the requirements by the commanders, Bradley changed its characteristics more than once and as a result began to more likely resemble a light tank. In addition, it was less maneuverable than the Soviet and Russian counterparts. For example, BMP-1 can carry an assault of eight people, while Bradley - of only six.

Towards the end of the 1990s, the Ground Forces began developing new promising infantry fighting vehicles called Future Combat Systems. However, after the $ 18 billion spent, the program was closed in 2009, and not a single working prototype was released within its framework.

In 2010, the program "Ground Combat Vehicle" was launched. The Pentagon spent $ 1.5 billion on it before curtailing development, also without getting a working prototype.

In 2018, the Ground Forces Command initiated the OMFV program, which was discontinued in 2019 and restarted in 2020.

Meanwhile, analysts recall that systemic failures with the development of new armored vehicles in the United States have been observed for quite some time. According to military expert Alexei Leonkov, the requirements and deadlines put forward by the Pentagon for defense industry enterprises were “fantastic,” and American designers could not solve a number of technical problems in the design of military vehicles.

“More than once, the BMP models that were offered were too heavy, or they lacked firepower. All this suggests that the entire existing system of lobbying orders and supporting programs played a cruel joke with the Americans. It was not those programs that were really needed that were approved, but those that received the most support from lobbyists. The story with the Bradley M2 even got into Hollywood, they shot a film in which they showed how it was actually adopted, ”the expert recalled.

At the same time, according to him, both the USSR and modern Russia have many varieties of military vehicles that can provide an advantage on the battlefield.

“We have such armored personnel carriers as the Boomerang, which are capable of equally effectively fighting the light and heavy equipment of the enemy. There are BMP-2, BMP-3. For example, the BMP-3 has an uninhabited tower, which, among other things, can work well in terms of manpower. That is, increasing production volumes of effective combat units and developing new ones, unlike the Americans, did not stop here, ”Leonkov explained.

According to military expert Yuri Knutov, the United States has once again become preoccupied with the lack of a modern infantry fighting vehicle due to new Russian models that have been successfully used in Syria. However, from his point of view, the Pentagon will not soon succeed in putting the new BMP into operation.

“It will be at least five years before such a machine in the United States appears in service. In addition, it is not known whether it will turn out quite successful. Previously, they had already developed various BMPs, spent breathtaking funds, but the projects were never implemented, ”the analyst concluded.