U.S. Army revives next-generation Ground Combat Vehicle program

December 3, 2010 🇺🇸

On Tuesday the U.S. Army released its revised solicitation for the three months after scrapping its previous plans.

The United States Army retracted its first for the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) on 25 August. It was decided by the army to begin anew after a "red team" recommended that the army either upgrade the existing ground vehicle fleet or rewrite the requirements. Program officials choose to end evaluations of vehicle submissions and to begin again in two months with new requirements.

The previous design requirements emphasized modularity, affordability, rapid design and low risk technology. The infantry fighting vehicle variant would have carried a crew of three and nine infantry dismounts. It was initially to be compatible with the current Battle Command Control and Communications Suite but would gradually use a more revolutionary network. The system would support networking between external systems, vehicles and soldiers. It was to be transportable by, rail, and ship and be as logistically deployable as the. The army officials were open to tracked or wheeled submissions but suggested that it be tracked due to the weight stemming from the requirements. The vehicle had an off-road speed requirement of 30 mph (50 km/h) and was required to deliver improved maintainability and consume less fuel than the. The army wanted the vehicle to leverage an, a anti-tank guided missile system and. The army wanted the vehicle to have the blast protection level equal to the and supplement armor with.

The army wanted the first vehicle variant to be a troop carrier that would displace the aging and. Later, other variants of the GCV would appear.

There were four known competing contractors for the Ground Combat Vehicle contract. led a team consisting of, , and. BAE offered a tracked vehicle with a hybrid-electric engine, a baseline weight of 53 tons and a maximum weight tolerance of 75 tons for modular armor and various countermeasures including a and active protection systems. led a team consisting of, , and. General Dynamics offered a vehicle using diesel and leveraging an active protection system. led a consortium called Team Full Spectrum which included, , and. SAIC offered a vehicle based on the. Advanced Defense Vehicle Systems (ADVS) submitted its proposal for a wheeled vehicle but was rejected for being non-compliant.

The predecessor to the GCV, the family, was canceled in April 2009. Similar programs like the and  have also been scrapped in the past. The, , and Ground Combat Vehicle programs have been targeted for cancellation by the.