By Ann Roosevelt
BAE Systems yesterday unveiled a common vehicle platform option for the Army to replace its M113 vehicles for the heavy brigade combat teams (HBCT), company officials said.
“The Bradley Family of Vehicles provides the optimum balance of cost and capability to meet the near-term M113 replacement needs for the HBCT,” Joe McCarthy, vice president and general manager, HBCT Systems, said in a statement. “The battle-proven Bradley platform provides the HBCT with the mobility, survivability and mission effectiveness our troops need, as well as the level of commonality that reduces supply chain and maintenance challenges.”
The Army is examining its overall modernization strategy to include its Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Integration strategy. There have been a number of examinations of replacing the M113 but no decisions have been made as the Army examines all the options.
The Family of Bradley Vehicles concept, introduced at the armor conference at Ft. Knox, Ky., offers a near term option to provide updated and improved ambulatory, mortar, command and other capabilities for the HBCT.
In particular, BAE proposes four platforms based on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle chassis. The adoption of these vehicles into the HBCT would create 77 percent commonality within the heavy brigade, the company said.
The four vehicles include: The Bradley Ambulatory Medical Evacuation Vehicle, with the capacity for all the essential medical equipment needed for en-route treatment of four litter patients, eight ambulatory patients, or a combination of the two.
A second platform is the Bradley Mortar Vehicle, which removes the Bradley turret and replaces it with the existing M1064 Mortar system and mission equipment. This retains commonality in maintenance and training. The increased volume of the Bradley as compared to the M1064 allows for more stowed mortar rounds.
The third proposal is for a Bradley Command Post. With high power-generation capabilities and five networked workstations, the Command Post provides a platform under-armor HBCT command and control. Related to the Bradley Command Post is the Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) Operations Center Vehicle (OCV), which uses the same Bradley platform with a reconfigured PIM hull.
The final vehicle proposed is the Bradley General Purpose Vehicle designed to fulfill general purpose missions currently performed by the M113. The general purpose vehicle has a large internal volume and is adaptable to meet various HBCT needs. A prototype will be in production soon.
The proposed Bradley derivatives could be a mix of remanufactured and new build vehicles, the company said.
For the HBCTs, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle fulfills five missions: infantry fighting vehicle, cavalry fighting vehicle, fire support vehicle, battle command vehicle, and engineer squad vehicles. The newly proposed platforms, with common mobility, protection, hull and track can go anywhere on the battlefield a Bradley Fighting Vehicle can go.