With the surprise disqualification of the Raytheon-Rheinmetall Lynx, the Army has effectively left itself with one competitor for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, General Dynamics -- unless the Pentagon or Congress intervene.
This kind of effort to get fighter-jock technology to ordinary grunts -- who do most of the fighting and dying -- has enjoyed some high-profile attention in the last 12 months. The efforts cover everything from developing a new, more powerful longer-range rifle to buying off-the-shelf quadcopters, from adding VR training simulations to eliminating tedious safety lectures.
With potential adversaries no longer predictable, training must move beyond just live exercises and flight simulators.
AUSA: The Army is investing more and more money in lasers to defeat incoming rockets and enemy drones. Across the Air & Missile Defense (AMD) portfolio, “we put over 50 percent of our S&T (Science and Technology) money going towards directed energy projects,” up from about a third previously, said the AMD modernization director, Brig. Gen. […]
BAE System's CV90 Mark IV is the latest upgrade of a 25-year-old vehicle widely used in Europe; the Rheinmetall-Raytheon Lynx is an all-new design, although individual components have a good track record; but the General Dynamics Griffin III is in the middle, combining a new gun and new electronics with the time-tested chassis from the European ASCOD family.
“It doesn’t have to be a tank, it just has to be decisive and lethal," Brig. Gen. Richard Ross Coffman answered. "If that is run by a flux capacitor, hovers, and has a ray gun -- and we can make it run at a reasonable cost -- we’ll look at it."
While the Strategic Long-Range Cannon will hit targets at ranges comparable to bleeding-edge hypersonics missiles, Army officials emphasized the cannon is built on proven principles, just bigger.
It’s about improving existing platforms with autonomy, and applying AI, edge computing, quantum encryption, and sensor fusion.
While the current Army requirement is purely for transport, manufacturer HDT has carefully designed in enough horsepower and electrical power to handle a host of heavy upgrades, including the machinegun shown here.
The Air Force is buying a static version of AUDS for base defense, mounted in a CONEX shipping container for ease of transport and set-up. For the Army, Northrop is proposing to integrate AUDS onto the workhorse Stryker vehicle.
Colin Clark climbs in and out of the V-280 at the Association of the US Army show, from cockpit to troop compartment, and gets a thorough briefing from Bell on what they've building, from engineering refined by a decade's experience with the V-22 Osprey to sensor technology derived from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter -- except upgraded.
"It’s much more like a fighter aircraft than a helicopter," Sikorsky's test pilot tells me in the video as he maneuvers gleefully. "Whoa, warn me next time!" I say after a particularly nifty/nauseating roll.
The solution starts with an outstanding portfolio of Challenger and Global aircraft, recognized as the world’s top-performing business jets.
Just as AirLand Battle was aimed straight at the former Soviet Union, with its massed mechanized armies, Multi-Domain Operations is aimed straight at Vladimir Putin's Russia, with its long-range missiles, electronic/cyber warfare expertise, and Little Green Men.
The Pentagon's No. 2 civilian said Wednesday that the final figure for a Space Force is unclear and is far from a done deal, even though the Air Force recently threw out a figure of $13 billion. “The final answer won’t happen this month or next month," Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told a small group of reporters.
General Dynamics offers a refined version of the upgunned Stryker, hoping to sway the Army's choice of lethality upgrade for the 8x8 vehicles come January.
Hollywood gives us the idea that US troops control their weapons with the latest video game-style graphics in glorious, full-color 3D. The reality is more like Pong -- only with life and death at stake.