The Army is chugging along modernizing its combat vehicles but budgets are forcing it to field the upgrades so slowly that the service is paying more than necessary for the work.
Almost exactly a year since publication of its Combat Vehicle Modernization Strategy the Army has upgrade programs underway for M1 Abrams, Bradley fighting vehicle and Stryker wheeled combat vehicle that improve their automotive performance, lethality and communication capabilities.
The first Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) is scheduled for delivery in December and the service is solidifying requirements for a new light tank that will provide Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) to infantry brigades.
“Over the last 12 months, I think we have been in a really dynamic time for combat vehicles in spite of what is widely recognized as a resource environment which is not sufficient for the systems we need for our forces,” Maj. Gen. David Bassett said Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exposition in Washington, D.C.
The CVMS described three new vehicles to address mobility requirements of infantry brigade combat teams (IBCT). They are the Light Reconnaissance Vehicle (LRV) the Ultralight Combat Vehicle (UCV) and MPF. It also laid out plans for the Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) program, which is in low-rate initial production, and AMPV.
“We wanted to lay out the best plan we could with the dollars that we had,” he said. “Across the board, the way we are affording all the things we are affording is by producing things at really low rates, which gives us some operational flexibility to ramp up if dollars are available, but creates fairly slow modernization across our formation and causes us to pay more than we necessarily would have to for the same system.”
Shrinking and continually uncertain modernization budgets are allowing the programs to hum along at a slow, steady pace but do not allow the Army to achieve economies of scale that result from large, multi-year acquisition deals, Bassett said.
Production rates for AMPV will be “modest when we start producing,” Bassett said. Full-rate production calls for 180 AMPVs per year, but low-rate initial production is still two years away. Production rates for Stryker Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) vehicles could be as low as one brigade every three years. Modernization rates for Abrams and Bradley will be “certainly” less than a brigade a year, he said.
“You’re just not getting at the level of resources that create an efficient production rate,” Bassett said. “Those are all systems of that budget environment. … Because I tell you that we are delivering on budget and on schedule doesn’t mean that the resources in this portfolio are sufficient for what the Army is asking us to do. We’re paying for it on the back end with relatively slow production rates.”
LRV has since been absorbed by the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). A JLTV outfitted with sensors and with beefed-up offensive firepower will serve as the Army’s new LRV.
Within the other brigade combat teams, upgraded versions of the M1, Bradley and Stryker are underway and in testing. Each of the programs improve survivability and lethality and integrate electronics necessary to carry the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, or WIN-T.
“In any resource environment, we are not going to modernize our force fast enough that we’re not going to have tanks and Bradleys in our Army for a very long time,” Bassett said. “These kinds of upgrades position us to be able to respond to a dynamic threat environment and to have a system with some design margin that allows us to fight effectively.”
The lethality upgrades for Stryker were just getting underway a year ago. The first vehicle that received the automotive upgrade, remote weapon turret and 30mm cannon will enter government testing by the end of the year, Bassett said.
All of the vehicles currently enrolled in the lethality upgrade program will ship to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Europe to increase its offensive capability.
The current, ongoing Stryker ECP program involves automotive and powertrain upgrades that will bring the entire fleet to a common baseline configuration. ECP-2 is multiple programs “flying in formation” that address elements of lethality. The first is integrating the Raytheon [RTN] Javelin missile and upgrading sensors on the TOW missile carrier variant.
Once the 2nd Cavalry Division has had time to shake down its up-gunned Strykers, the Army plans to “re-engage what will be a competitive acquisition for a cannon-armed vehicle sometime in the 2019-2020 timeframe,” said Col. Glenn Dean, the Armys Styker project manager. The solutions that worked for 2nd Cav will then be applied across the entire Stryker fleet, Dean said.
This will be a competitive acquisition for a cannon-armed vehicle sometime in the 19-20 timeframe based on what is learned from 2nd Cavalry and then apply those solutions across the fleet.
Bassett used Stryker lethality as an example of how project managers at PEO GCS have “bent the process to our will.” Given an urgent need to beef up the combat power of mobile ground forces in Europe, a competition for a new turret, cannon and necessary structural automotive retrofits was held and concluded and the upgraded vehicle built and delivered in just over a year.
“We got the acquisition process largely out of the way and, in fact, Congress was mind enough to budget the money up front for Stryker lethality so now as we face a continuing resolution environment, Stryker lethality is unaffected,” Bassett said.
Maj. Gen. Bassett is a featured speaker at Defense Daily’s 2016 Open Architecture Summit scheduled for Oct. 18 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. Information on the agenda and registration can be found at www.openarchitecturesummit.com.