“Armor and the Arctic don't necessarily match,” Cogbill said. “They're heavy. They would fall off the roads. They tumble down the side of a mountain. So we have to be light, highly mobile. It’s a matter of [having] just over the snow mobility.”
The two companies plan to have a prototype of the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle outfitted with autonomous capabilities by next year.
Partnerships with outside industry are a cornerstone of the kingdom’s ambitious growth strategy.
“[We’re] empowering our generals to take on that risk where we have the right to repair so that they can make these very small parts to get things back on and get them back into the hands of our soldiers," Secretary Driscoll said.
“This effort will serve as an opportunity for the Army to assess the reliability of commercial autonomy and their ability to deliver real operational value to soldiers in the field,” said Col. Ken Bernier.
“The strike company is designed to be the lead echelon of the battalion, which combines manned and unmanned sensors in order to make contact with the enemy and to attrit enemy forces before they come in the range of our traditional infantry companies,” Col. Joshua Glonek told Breaking Defense.
The service is looking for a “readily available” weapon for its smaller, lighter vehicles, that can hit targets at least 25 kilometers away.
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
Despite that decision, service budget documents do not indicate plans to significantly ramp up production.
By year’s end, service leaders should have a draft TWV strategy to guide their decisions on a host of vehicle fleets from the Infantry Squad Vehicle to the future Common Tactical Truck.
The US company signed an MOU with the UAE's Tawazun Council for vehicle mobility and power projects.
GM Defense rolls into IDEX 2023 with concept vehicles looking to expand its footprint in the tactical wheeled vehicle market, including its Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) Heavy Gun Carrier variant and its Next Generation Light Tactical Wheeled Vehicle.
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The service postponed its full-rate production decision by nearly a year, while working with GM Defense to retest vehicle corrections to address “deficiencies.”
There are ways to leverage proven commercial technology that enables warfighters to more quickly benefit from modern capabilities.
Building on its recent success equipping the first U.S. Army unit with the Infantry Squad Vehicle, GM Defense is expanding into the international market for tactical wheeled vehicles.
Budget documents lay out some of the Army's purchasing plan for the vehicles, recently the subject of a harsh Pentagon tester report.