Riding onto the Future Battlefield: How the Army Can Get the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle Right
Brandon Morgan | August 25, 2020
After forty years of distinguished combat service and numerous upgrades, the Army is ready to replace the famous (and Hollywood infamous) Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program serves as the latest effort to dramatically advance the capability, lethality, and overmatch of mechanized infantry within a combined-arms formation. After several failed attempts to replace the Army’s Bradley, the stakes are high—and growing. The Army recognizes that the Bradley is nearing the end of its useful life and can no longer accommodate the upgrades critical to fight and win on the modern battlefield. Recently, the OMFV program provided US industry leaders a baseline of characteristics, requesting feedback on what modern industry and technology could produce in the near future. These characteristics, broadly speaking, include the ability for unmanned/remote control, artificial-intelligence incorporation, and protection from and overmatch against peer armored threats. To achieve this, the OMFV must be conceived and designed to be a significant departure from the Bradley, rather than a costly marginal improvement, a vehicle that has high operational mobility, incorporates unique forms of maneuver, and has the ability to contribute to competition below armed conflict.
https://mwi.usma.edu/riding-onto-the-future-battlefield-how-the-army-can-get-the-optionally-manned-fighting-vehicle-right/
