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October 16, 2018 | International, Land

General Dynamics Griffin Takes Lead To Replace M2 Bradley

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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.

AUSA: General Dynamics looks like the early favorite to replace the Army's 1980s-vintage M2 Bradley troop carrier. That's my personal assessment after talking at length to officers and contractors at last week's Association of the US Army conference, where months of uncertainty finally gave way to some real clarity about both what the Army wants and what industry can offer.

In brief, GD's Griffin III demonstrator seems to hit the sweet spot between innovative and proven technologies that the Army wants to start fielding a Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) as soon as 2026. Of the three vehicles on display at AUSA,

The competitors do have a lot in common. All offer tracked vehicles with diesel engines — even BAE, which once touted its hybrid-electric drives as a key selling point. All three boast open-architecture electronics to ease future upgrades, an integrated Active Protection System to shoot down incoming anti-tank warheads, modular armor that can be layered on or stripped down depending on the mission, and a turret capable of mounting a 50 mm gun, the Army's preferred caliber.

Only the Griffin actually has a 50mm installed right now, however. The others currently have 35mm cannon. It's also the only vehicle that can point its gun almost straight up, at an 85 degree angle, to hit rooftop targets in urban combat, something the Army has worried about extensively. Details like this suggest that General Dynamics has been listening more closely to the Army than its competitors. In fact, even where the Griffin III underperforms its competitors, most notably by carrying fewer infantry, it does so in areas where the Army is willing to make tradeoffs.

The End of the Beginning

Now, it's still early in the NGCV race. While we only saw three contenders on the floor at AUSA, it's still entirely possible a fourth player could jump in. My money's on the team of SAIC and Singapore-based STK, which is already offering a modified Singaporean army vehicle for the US Army's Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) light tank.

The other MPF competitors are BAE, with an update of the Armored Gun Systemcancelled in 1996, and GD, offering a version of the Griffin. By November, the Army will award two of the three companies contracts to build prototypes. If either GD or the SAIC-ST team wins, they'll have at least a slight advantage for NGCV, since buying related vehicles for both roles will simplify training, maintenance, and supply. (BAE's AGS is totally unrelated to its CV90, so an MPF win wouldn't help it on NGCV).

By contrast to MPF, the competition for NGCV is only at the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. The Army's still refining its requirements, in part based on discussions with industry at AUSA.

What's the timeline? Col. James Schirmer, the program manager, said at the conference that “we are within weeks of having that requirement finalized.” Brig. Gen. Richard Ross Coffman, the Army's director of armored vehicle modernization, said a formal Request For Proposal (RFP) based on those requirements will come out no later than January.

So there'll be time for the competitors to revise their NGCV designs before submitting them. Even after that, more than one company will get a contract to build prototypes for Army testing.

What's the objective that drives both this pace and the technological tradeoffs the Army is willing to make? Fielding the first operational unit in 2026 — nine years earlier than the original plan — to help deter Russian aggression.

Deadline 2026

“All options are on the table, but the schedule will be the schedule,” Brig. Gen. Coffman told reporters at AUSA. “We would like to field this vehicle by 2026.”

“If someone could develop a clean sheet design that could meet that timeline,” he said, “it'd be great, but I don't know that's doable.”

(By contrast, the potential replacement for the M1 Abrams tank is coming later, so the service is looking for radical innovation).

Schirmer offered more specifics. “We have a pretty challenging test schedule... very similar to MPF, (so) we really can't afford a clean sheet design,” he said. The more mature the component technologies, the better, he said, but what's best is that those individual components have been proven as an integrated system.

Specifically, Schirmer said, “for the Bradley replacement, we are going to be buying vehicles that are based on a mature architecture — powertrain, track, suspension — that's already in service somewhere in the world.”

While these remarks leave the door open for the Lynx, or at least ajar, they're not particularly encouraging. By contrast, the CV90 series entered service with Sweden in 1993, with variants now serving in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Holland, Norway, and Switzerland. The Griffin III is the latest member of the ASCOD family — the Spanish Pizzaro, Austrian Ulan, and British Ajax — which debuted in Spain in 2002.

While the Army wants a proven hull, however, Schirmer says there is one area where technology is advancing fast enough for it be worth taking some risk: lethality, i.e. the gun and sensors. In particular, while the Bradley has a 25mm chaingun, the Army really wants NGCV to have a 50mm cannon — firing shells about four times as big — that's now in development at the service's Ammunition Research, Development, & Engineering Center (ARDEC).

That gun, the XM913, is currently integrated on just one competitor, the Griffin, although both the Lynx and CV90 turrets could accommodate it. All three vehicles, like the Bradley, also have room in the turret to mount anti-tank missiles of various types. The Griffin on the show floor also mounts a launcher for AeroVironment Shrike mini-drones, while the Lynx will have the option to launch Raytheon's Coyote: Both mini-drones can be configured either with sensors to scout or with warheads to destroy.

Even on weaponry, however, the Army is willing to make compromises to speed fielding, just as it introduced the original M1 Abrams with a 105 mm gun but with room to upgrade to the desired 120mm when it was ready a few years later. For NGCV, Schirmer said, they want the vehicle to have the 50mm gun eventually but “may settle on the 30 in the near term, just to meet schedule.”

Armor & Passengers

Besides gun caliber, the other easily measured aspect of an armored vehicle is its weight, which is very much a two-edged sword. There's been no breakthrough in armor materials since the 1980s and none on the horizon, so the only way to get better armor is to make it thicker. So a heavier vehicle is probably better protected, but it also burns more fuel, wears out more spare parts, and has more trouble getting places: Bridges and transport aircraft in particular can only take so much weight.

Full article: https://breakingdefense.com/2018/10/general-dynamics-griffin-takes-lead-to-replace-m2-bradley

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    June 21, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

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    MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY Coleman Aerospace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $140,184,433 firm-fixed-price modification (P00114) to a previously awarded contract (HQ0147-14-C-0001). The value of this contract is being increased from $366,376,257 by $140,184,433 to $506,560,690 by exercising this option. Under this modification, the contractor will provide six additional Medium Range Ballistic Missile targets and associated nonrecurring engineering. The work will be performed in Orlando, Florida. The performance period is from June 2019 through December 2027. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $22,469,742 are being obligated on this award. One offeror was solicited and one offer was received. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. NAVY BAE Systems Land and Armaments L.P., Sterling Heights, Michigan, is awarded a not-to-exceed $67,000,000 modification for firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract line item numbers 8000, 8001, 8002, and 8100 to a previously awarded contract (M67854-16-C-0006), for the development of engineering drawings, manufacture, and test support for three Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) command and control Mission Role Variants (MRVs), and the development of engineering drawings for the ACV medium caliber cannon MRV. The ACV program is managed within the portfolio of Program Executive Officer Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia. Work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania (85 %); and Aiken, South Carolina (15 %), and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds in the amount of $2,500,000; and fiscal 2019 RDT&E funds in the amount of $20,075,743 will be obligated at the time of award, and funding in the amount of $2,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract modification was not competitively procured, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 and 10 U.S. Code § 2304(c)(1). The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Leidos Innovations Corp., Gaithersburg, Maryland, is awarded a $29,962,608 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-16-C-5202 to exercise the options for integrated logistic support, fleet support and life cycle sustainment of the Navy's AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 surface ship Undersea Warfare (USW) Systems. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is the USW combat system, with the capabilities to search, detect, classify, localize and track undersea contacts and to engage and evade submarines, mine-like small objects and torpedo threats. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (61 %); San Diego, California (18 %); Pascagoula, Mississippi (6 %); Bath, Maine (4 %); Manassas, Virginia (4 %); Yososuka, Japan (2 %); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (2 %); Everett, Washington (1 %); Mayport, Florida (1 %); and Rota, Spain (1 %), and is expected to be completed by June 2020. Foreign Military Sales; fiscal 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2017, 2018 and 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $15,418,688 will be obligated at time of award, and $2,846,455 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. 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Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, is awarded a $13,197,241 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-2301 for littoral combat ship class design services and integrated data and product model environment (IDPME) support. Austal USA will provide efforts to support littoral combat ship class ships, including but not limited to technical analyses, non-recurring engineering, configuration management, software maintenance and development, production assessments, and diminishing manufacturing sources and seaframe reliability analysis. Austal USA will also maintain an IDPME that will enable the Navy to access enterprise data management, visualization, program management applications, and network management and control. Work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama (60 %); and Pittsfield, Massachusetts (40 %), and is expected to be complete by June 2025. 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Fairmount Automation Inc.,* West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is awarded a maximum value $12,439,633 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, supplies/services contract for the commercial procurement of Fairmount Automation's G4 Design Pad family of controller models and accessories, Windows based configuration software package licenses and engineering services to work with the government design teams to assist in programming and troubleshooting network interfaces. The services under this contract cover system design, software programming, program logistic support, and equipment analysis and repair. Work will be performed in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (90 %); and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (10 %), and is expected to be complete by June 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $261,175 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. 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