Following the news that representatives from the US Army’s Program Executive Office–Ground Combat Systems (PEO-GCS)—reiterated that current requirements for the OMFV remain malleable in anticipation of the publication of Requests for Proposal (RFP) for the third and fourth stages of the troubled program later this month;
Tristan Sauer, Land Domain Analyst at GlobalData, offers his view:
“Throughout the course of the US Army’s multi-year effort to secure a replacement for the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, tangible progress has repeatedly been hampered by the Army’s increasingly demanding list of requirements and capabilities. Indeed, as procurement officials continued to react to strategic and technological developments worldwide, the inability for established platform designers such as BAE Systems, Rheinmetall and General Dynamics to satisfy the Army’s evolving requirements was indicative of the deeper problem of ‘mission creep’ within US defense procurement circles. This caused BAE Systems to withdraw from the competition, whereas Rheinmetall’s bid was disqualified at the 11th hour, resulting in the entire project being cancelled and the original requirements being completely scrapped in 2020.
“Now facing increased pressure from Congress to deliver on this troubled program, Army officials have taken a more flexible approach to determining key requirements, relying more heavily on detailed feedback from industry partners throughout the initial design phases to inform their decisions in a more pragmatic manner. This was explicitly stressed by Brig. Gen. Glenn Dean, Program Executive Officer for the Army’s PEO-GCS office, during the Eurosatory 2022 conference in France last week. According to Brig. Gen. Dean, the current top-line priorities for the OMFV are for a ‘tracked, medium-weight platform’, which is sufficiently broad to provide the competitors with an appropriate level of creative freedom in designing the platform and integrating key capabilities.
“This more hands-off approach has arguably already yielded positive results for Army procurement officials, as all five current competitors (namely BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems, American Rheinmetall, Oshkosh Defense and Point Blank Enterprises) have produced initial designs incorporating hybrid-electric drive capabilities. Although this was not an official requirement, hybrid-electric drive is expected to play a large role in the development of future land platforms due to the potential benefits for logistics and modularity. Consequently, procurement priorities within the OMFV program are increasingly being shaped by industry’s capabilities rather than the competing requirements of various Army officials, streamlining the initial design process to a significant extent and thus increasing the likelihood that the defense industry can finally deliver a transformative yet timely capability upgrade in the next few years.”
