The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to develop future armored fighting vehicles that are more mobile, effective and affordable, so it has initiated the Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program.
DARPA aims to develop GXV-T technologies over 24 months after initial contract awards, which are currently planned on or before April 2015.
Image: DARPA
“GXV-T’s goal is not just to improve or replace one particular vehicle–it’s about breaking the ‘more armor’ paradigm and revolutionizing protection for all armored fighting vehicles,” said Kevin Massey, DARPA program manager. “Inspired by how X-plane programs have improved aircraft capabilities over the past 60 years, we plan to pursue groundbreaking fundamental research and development to help make future armored fighting vehicles significantly more mobile, effective, safe and affordable.”
The GXV-T program plans to pursue research, development, design and testing and evaluation of major subsystem capabilities in multiple technology areas with the goal of integrating these capabilities into future ground X-vehicle demonstrators.
DARPA plans a proposer’s day Sept. 5.
Major armored vehicle firms such as General Dynamics [GD] and BAE Systems and have taken an interest.
“As a provider of full suite of world-class combat vehicles, General Dynamics Land Systems is always interested in technologies to improve our products’ capabilities and performance to maintain the asymmetric advantage that our war fighters and allies enjoy,” said General Dynamics spokesman Peter Keating. “We have successfully collaborated with DARPA, and look forward to exciting new opportunities to explore next generation vehicle designs. We fully support the GXV-T program, modeled after the successful X-plane series, and will offer our innovative solutions and integration expertise as appropriate to achieve significant technology advances that offer alternatives to armor for improving mobility and survivability of combat vehicles.”
BAE said it was “considering” the program. Other firms with a potential interest could include AM General, Oshkosh (OSK), and Navistar Defense LLC [NAV].
DARPA considered “more armor equals more protection,” the equation for the past 100 years of mechanized warfare. However, the ability of weapons to penetrate armor has advanced faster than armor’s ability to protect vehicles and those within it. That has led to significant increases in mass and cost, which ultimately limits the ability of soldiers and Marines to deploy swiftly and maneuver to accomplish their missions. At the same time, larger vehicles become limited to roads, need more logistical support and become more expensive to design, develop field and replace.
In a recent release DARPA said, “The U.S. military is now at a point where–considering tactical mobility, strategic mobility, survivability and cost–innovative and disruptive solutions are necessary to ensure the operational viability of the next generation of armored fighting vehicles.”
The creation of the GXV-T program seeks to help overcome these challenges and disrupt the current trends in mechanized warfare. It will investigate revolutionary ground-vehicle technologies that would simultaneously improve the mobility and survivability of vehicles through means other than adding more armor, including avoiding detection, engagement and hits by adversaries. This improved mobility and warfighting capability would enable future U.S. ground forces to more efficiently and cost-effectively tackle varied and unpredictable combat situations.
GXV-T’s technical goals include the improvements relative to today’s armored fighting vehicles such as to: reduce vehicle size and weight by 50 percent; reduce onboard crew needed to operate vehicle by 50 percent; increase vehicle speed by 100 percent; access 95 percent of terrain; and, reduce signatures that enable adversaries to detect and engage vehicles.
As examples, the GXV-T program provided four technical areas where advanced technologies could be developed that would meet the program’s objectives:
* Radically Enhanced Mobility–The ability to traverse diverse off-road terrain, including slopes and various elevations; advanced suspensions and novel track/wheel configurations; extreme speed; rapid omnidirectional movement changes in three dimensions;
* Survivability through Agility–To be able to autonomously avoid incoming threats without harming occupants through technologies such as agile motion (dodging) and active repositioning of armor;
* Crew Augmentation–Improved physical and electronically assisted situational awareness for crew and passengers; semi-autonomous driver assistance and automation of key crew functions similar to capabilities found in modern commercial airplane cockpits; and
* Signature Management–The reduction of detectable signatures, including visible, infrared (IR), acoustic and electromagnetic (EM).
Beyond those four examples, technology development is desired as long as it supports the program’s goals, the agency said.
DARPA is particularly interested in engaging nontraditional contributors to help develop leap-ahead technologies in the focus areas, as well as other technologies that could potentially improve both the survivability and mobility of future armored fighting vehicles.