According to the site Defensenews.com, the Infantry Combat Vehicle Lynx KF41 de Rheinmetall, and presented within a joint venture between the German industrial group and the American Raytheon, would have been eliminated from the competition Optionnaly Manned Fighting Vehicle, or OMFV, intended to rlocation of the US Army's Bradley's M2/M3 IFVs from 2026. According to information collected by the site's journalists, this elimination would be linked to the fact that the prototype of the Lynx, which was to be delivered on site for tests from October 1, could not be delivered within the stipulated time, the German group having had to face administrative difficulties in transporting the armored vehicle through different countries to carry out the delivery. We also learn that Rheinmetall would have requested an additional period of 4 weeks to carry out this delivery, which would have been refused, as well as a Free On Board delivery on October 1st to carry out transport by sea, again, refused by the Army Future Command, in charge of running the program and meeting deadlines.
There remains, therefore, only one participant in the “competition” OMFV , Griffin III from the American group General Dynamics Land Division, all the other contenders having thrown in the towel. Indeed, if this program is presented as critical by theU.S. Army, it is also a test bed for the new acquisition policy of the American Army, which wishes to break, as'U.S. Air Force, with programs respecting neither their schedule nor their cost forecasts. Thus, the program OMFV plans, until 2023, an evaluation of the 14 prototypes of the 2 finalists, aiming to give the participant time (no plural from now on..) to satisfy the 100 key points required, while respecting the planned date of entry into service of 2026. But this approach, deliberately ambitious, has, it seems, taken many industrialists by surprise, who preferred to withdraw from the program, judging the requirements of theU.S. Army incompatible with the proposed schedule.
The elimination of Lynx KF41 is not good news. For Rheinmetall obviously since the German group had high hopes on this competition to, finally, find a customer for its armored vehicle. But also forUS Army, who will now have to deal with an industrialist in a position of strength, since he is the only one remaining in the running. We therefore understand that, in this competition, the credibility, and therefore the future, of theArmy Future Command, and its approach that breaks with the management of past programs. As is often the case in the United States, the two camps confronting each other, with on one side the Defense Industrialists who were very satisfied with previous procedures, and on the other theU.S. Army and its AFC, which must face the increasing risks of engagement in the face of increasingly powerful and better equipped adversaries, will give rise to intense political lobbying campaigns in Washington.
Le Griffin III de General Dynamics, the only competitor now, is a 40-ton armored vehicle derived from Ajax, the tracked infantry fighting vehicle chosen by theBritish Army in 2014 and ordered 589 units, in 6 different versions, ranging from the Infantry Combat Vehicle (Ajax version – 245 units) to the command version (Athena – 112 units) including a specialized version of the Engineer, repair armored, reconnaissance and troop transport. the Ajax, which weighs 38 tonnes, is notably equipped with the same cannon CT40 40 mm than that which equips the future EBRC Jaguar of the French Army.
Le Griffin III, although it is designed from Ajax, is nevertheless based on an open and highly modular architecture, allowing it to adapt to different types of mission (which is also, by the way, the main advantage of the Lynx of Rheinmetall). In its basic version, it will carry a modular turret equipped with a 50mm cannon, according to the desire expressed by theU.S. Army, also modular over-armoring and an active protection system against anti-tank missiles, as it seems to be becoming the norm today (except in France...). According to General Dynamics, It has a carrying capacity of 10 tonnes, offering very significant scalability for the adaptation of additional systems in the future. Finally, it is designed to deploy and interact with drones, again, a feature that seems poised to become the norm for heavy armor.
The fact remains that, with only one industrialist in the running, the competition OMFV risks facing the wrath of the American Congress. We cannot exclude, therefore, that the latter imposes AFC to satisfy requests for additional delays for the transport of the Lynx de Rheinmetall and Raytheon. If such a decision were to be made, it would probably be in the next few days, so as not to disrupt the schedule of the event too much.Army Future Command and the program OMFV. But 4 weeks would perhaps not be too much to ensure the smooth running of a program of more than 2.500 vehicles armored vehicles estimated at $24 billion.