The SAIC [SAI]-led team of Boeing [BA], Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), and Rheinmetall Defence (RMD) said their offering for the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) vehicle will be unlike anything the Army has seen.
The “Team Full Spectrum” vehicle offering, intended to replace the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and M113, is highly survivable and state of the art, said Dan Zanini, SAIC senior vice president, in a teleconference.
The vehicle, which will leverage the current state-of-the-art KMW-RMD developed Puma, also will incorporate lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and from the terminated Future Combat Systems’ Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) effort, he said.
Additionally, the mature solution and high technology readiness levels already achieved would help meet and possibly support an accelerated program schedule, officials said. However, acceleration would depend on a change in the current Army acquisition strategy and the availability of funds.
Juergen Neidhardt, senior vice president strategic business development at RMD, said, “We believe we can leverage more rapid development of GCV for quicker fielding with greater capability for all cases of combat operations.”
Steve Marion, senior program director, Boeing Network & Tactical Systems, said the team offering is the “best of what we think is the most progressive platform in production today…bringing forward the full depth and breadth of capabilities [into a] unique offering Army not seen before.”
In late April, SAIC, Boeing, KMW and RMD concluded an agreement to compete on the GCV program, with SAIC as the prime contractor, RMD and KMW as subcontractors to Boeing.
In May, the SAIC team, and teams led by BAE Systems and General Dynamics [GD] submitted proposals for the GCV Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) Technology Development phase (Defense Daily, May 24). Source selection is in progress with as many as three competitive contract awards expected late in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.
The Team Full Spectrum offering will be the result of a KMW-RMD process with the current Puma to change its base structure–from five road wheels to six and an adapted chassis that will allow it to carry nine passengers with its three-man crew, Zanini said. With mature subsystems harvested from the defunct FCS MGV, the vehicle will be an “Americanized GCV,” he said.
The chassis design takes into account threats in Afghanistan and Iraq, notably the IED, he said.
Thomas Kauffmann, KMW senior vice president, Sales & Marketing, said, “From our point of view, it’s a vehicle of the 21st century facing the threats of the 21st century.
While the Puma, the current version now in delivery to the German Army, resembles the Bradley, it is not like it, Zanini said. The Bradley carries fewer troops and is lightly protected. For the GCV offering, protection for current threats and carrying additional people adds weight, but “we’re comfortable that the weight we come in at is an acceptable weight and the mobility of the platform in the off road environment is very, very good.”
Neidhardt said the operational capabilities of the vehicle–off road in particular in difficult terrain–was one of the main requirements for developing the Puma. “We have seen the Puma does have extremely good capability for operations in very heavy terrain.”
Kauffmann said the weight of the Puma can run from 32 tons to 43 tons, the running gear allows increased underbelly protection, and there’s also a decrease in the noise level for the crew.
The crew also can communicate without headsets, Zanini said, something seemingly minor that could be a competitive advantage in combat.
A critical design feature for the FCS MGV was to “unburden” the soldier, Zanini said. This also is the goal for the GCV to reduce physical fatigue and mechanical tasks during operations in a combat environment. “This frees them to operate at cognitive levels.”
The design features of the Puma chassis and drive and the operational environment inside the vehicle is unlike anything seen in ground combat vehicles, Zanini said.
Marion said if the team is selected the vehicle would be produced in the United States, though no site has been identified. Under their agreement, the companies committed that it would be a U.S.-manufactured vehicle, with a desire to create jobs in the United States. Decisions on product sources will not be made now, as the program has several years to run before production.
Additionally, Zanini said, the team is looking at leveraging the Army enterprise systems and the investments already made in depots and arsenals.
The conjoined capabilities and capacities of the team will result in the best offer, Neidhardt said.
Bottom line: the GCV is focused on the soldier, Zanini said.