The Army is collecting information on existing vehicles and technologies that could fit the bill for a Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) vehicle to improve the long-range firepower capabilities of infantry brigades.
MPF was introduced as a new-start, $10 million line item under the Army’s 2017 research and development budget request. The program was broadly defined as an effort to boost the mobility and lethality of infantry brigade combat teams (IBCT) during a high-end combined-arms maneuver fight with a near-peer adversary.
More detail was released in a July 14 solicitation asking industry to propose non-developmental or modified non-developmental vehicles that could fill the perceived capability gap. Interested vehicle manufacturers have kept watch on the Army’s so-far ethereal requirements for the MPF, trying to figure out if it will be an up-gunned troop carrier, a light tank or something else entirely. Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno predicted before retiring that the Army would soon develop a requirement for a light tank.
More information should be available on what the Army wants in a few months. Industry responses to the solicitation are due by Aug. 19. They will be used to determine if any platforms exist that can or with minor modifications could meet the Army’s requirements as they are currently written. Based on industry feedback, the Army plans to update its formal requirements in time for the annual Association of the U.S. Army convention in October.
“The government would like to use this information to determine if the current requirements can be met with a low to moderate risk program that modifies an existing vehicle,” the sources sought solicitation reads. “The government is also interested in soliciting industry input to determine if there are requirements that, with some adjustment, would allow other potential options to compete.”
The Army’s standard IBCT is in need of mobility, protection and firepower enhancements “to enable combined arms maneuver against projected threats which will likely emulate the adaptations of recent opponents while capitalizing on emerging technologies,” the Army says.
MPF requirements describe a protected, long-range, precision direct-fire platform that also is highly mobile and capable of both offensive and defensive operations.
The Army’s Combat Vehicle Modernization Strategy (CVMS), approved by the service secretary and chief of staff in April 2015, includes funding for MPF from fiscal years 2017 to 20-2021.
An Army requirements oversight council in June decided to proceed with a request for materiel development decision (MDD) and start planning for an analysis of alternatives (AoA) in fiscal 2017. A competitive request for proposals (RFP) is schedule for release in fiscal 2018 with award the following fiscal year, according to the Army. The acquisition strategy will focus on NDI vehicles with minimal to moderate modifications. The results received from the sources sought solicitation will help inform the AoA.