The US Army chooses its new light tank to reinforce its infantry units

The US Army has just announced that it has arbitrated in favor of General Dynamic Land System's MFP light tank as part of its Mobile Protected Firepower program. But the M10 Booker, as it is called, is a light tank only in name…

After several failures linked to excessive technological and operational ambitions, the US Army had to, in 2015, urgently initiate an ambitious program for the modernization of its fleet of armored vehicles inherited from the end of the Cold War, such as the heavy tank M1 Abrams, the M2/M3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, as well as the M113 tracked personnel carrier.

After the cancellation of the Ground Combat Vehicle program in 2014, a new program was launched in 2017, called Next Generation Combat Vehicle, with the ambition of replacing the entire US Army tracked fleet.

This program consists of the Armored MultiPurpose Vehicle program intended to replace the American M113s with 2.897 tracked armored vehicles whose design and construction had already been awarded to BAE Systems in 2014, the Optionally Manned Combat Vehicle program relating to the replacement of some 5.700 VCI Bradley in service with the US Army, about which a new competition was launched in July 2021 after the failure of the previous one a few months earlier.

The programme Decisive Lethality Platform should make it possible to replace the 5.500 American Abrams heavy tanks, while the Mobile Protected Firepower program, aimed at giving back to American infantry units firepower lost since the withdrawal of the M551 Sheridan light tanks in 1997.

The US Army has now formalized its choice for the MFP program, after a competition between 12 prototypes delivered by the two finalists, BAE, with an evolution of the M8 Buford, a light tank initially developed in the 90s, but abandoned in the advantage of the Stryker wheeled armored vehicle, and General Dynamics Land Systems with an evolution of the Griffin III (in main illustration), also in the running for the OMFV competition.

During a press conference, US Army Under-Secretary Doug Bush (unrelated, he is an only son and a Democrat, editor's note) confirmed the US Army's choice in favor of the GDLS, without much surprise since many echoes since March 2022 reported the elimination of the M8 Buford from BAE System at the end of the test campaign.

The manufacturer is therefore allocated a budget of $1,14 billion to produce and deliver the first 96 armored vehicles out of a total order of 504 units, with a first delivery in just 19 months, and a rapid industrial ramp-up. to reach full production capacity by the end of 2023.

The entire fleet should be in service by 2035, at the rate of 42 light tanks per infantry brigade, for a total acquisition budget of $6 billion and a total life cycle budget estimated at 17 €bn, i.e. a substantial acquisition cost of $12m per armored vehicle.

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