Posted on 10/10/2017 12:39:10 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
If the stars align for defense contractor SAIC, the US Army and Marine Corps will soon be buying hundreds of armored vehicles designed in Singapore.
Yesterday, six months after joining forces for the first time on the Marines Amphibious Combat Vehicle competition and just four days before the massive Association of the US Army conference opens in DC Virginia-based SAIC and Singapore Technologies Kinetics officially announced they are teaming up again for the Armys Mobile Protected Firepower program, a light tank to support light infantry in places where the massive M1 Abrams cannot go.
SAIC didnt go in planning another team-up with STK, SAIC Defense Systems general manager Jim Scanlon told me. We talked to a lot of different folks around the globe, visited them and so forth, Scanlon said. It wasnt preconceived going in that theyd partner with the Singaporeans again, but for the vehicle chassis, what STK was doing was the best. SAIC plans to offer the chassis of Singapores brand-new Next Generation Armored Fighting Vehicle (NGAFV) with a Cockerill 3105 turret from Belgiums CMI. Working closely together, Scanlon said, the team is a viable alternative to the more traditional GD and BAE.
That makes two contracts now where the upstart SAIC-STK team is going head to head with defense giant BAE Systems. BAE makes the Armys M2 Bradley, AMPV utility vehicle, and M109 Paladin howitzer. BAE also won the Armys previous, cancelled program for a light tank: The M8 Buford Armored Gun System (AGS), which BAE is updating for MPF with new electronics, a new engine, and improved protection.
Unlike its rivals, who must come up with new tanks on a tight timeline, BAEs benefits from years of painstaking, bespoke optimization for this exact role. The requirement that was established in the 90s really hasnt significantly changed, BAEs VP for combat vehicles, Deepak Bazaz, told me. Were really purpose-built for that particular mission.
The third, quieter contender is General Dynamics Land Systems, another established armored vehicle firm, which builds the Armys M1 Abrams heavy tank and its eight-wheel-drive Stryker armored vehicles. Unlike SAIC and BAE, GDLS didnt offer an interview for this article. From past statements and other published clues, however, theyll likely offer an evolution of the Griffin demonstrator they showed at last years AUSA. Similar to the SAIC-STK design, the Griffin took an existing chassis, the British Ajax scout vehicle, and added a different turret derived from the M1. Unlike SAIC, however, GDLS builds both the Ajax and M1 itself, so it didnt need a partner.
Big Gun, Small Tank
The Army hasnt finalized its requirements so the competitors havent finalized their designs. The service has circulated multiple drafts of the requirements for comment. Nevertheless, its already possible to detect some definite differences.
When it comes to the F in MPF firepower both SAIC and BAE will use a 105mm cannon, a standard NATO caliber. GDLSs Griffin, by contrasts, boasts a 120mm gun, the caliber that replaced 105s on heavy tanks in the 1980s. When I talked to GDLS last year, they sounded pretty proud of their lightweight 120, originally developed for yet another cancelled light tank, part of the Future Combat Systems program. They were proud of a gun turret set-up that functioned identically to the M1, which also has a 120 mm. So my bet is they stick with that weapon and turret combo, making them stand out as the literal big gun of the MPF competition.
On the mobile side, BAEs Armored Gun System looks like the lightest contender. Designed to be air-dropped alongside the 82nd Airborne, it can strip down to 19 tons to be parachuted into battle or additional armor can be layered on until it weighs 25 tons although the new version may well gain some weight. GDLSs Griffin weighs 28 tons, though their final design could be very different. By contrast, SAIC told me they expect their vehicle to weigh in the 30-ton range. The Singaporean NGAFV is 29 tons with its current turret, but it carries a much lighter gun, and the 105 turret will certainly add a few tons.
That means the SAIC vehicle, and probably the GDLS one, are too heavy to be dropped by parachute. Air-droppability is not a requirement for Mobile Protected Firepower most MPF will go to regular infantry brigades, not the 82nd Airborne but its a cherry on top that the prestigious airborne community would love to have. The stated requirement is simply for something much more air transportable than the M1 Abrams: The biggest Air Force transport that can land on a dirt airstrip, the C-17, can only carry one 70-ton M1, but the Army wants it to carry two MPFs at once.
That may not seem like a big difference, but for an airborne commander trying to build up his forces as fast as possible before the enemy decides to reenact the Battle of Arnhem in A Bridge Too Far, getting twice as many tanks per sortie, even if theyre smaller, can be a literal lifesaver. The stripped-down BAE Armored Gun System can flow to the front even faster, since it fits in the smaller C-130 transport, which is more common than the C-17 and can land on shorter fields. (And, of course, theres the more recent experience of the 82nd in the first Iraq war, where the Defense Science Board described it as a speed bump because of its lack of heavy weaponry.)
Unfortunately, mobility and protection the P in MPF are at odds. The more armor you add, as the US found out in Afghanistan and Iraq, the harder it is to cross rickety bridges, frozen rivers, and precarious mountainside trails; the more fuel and spare parts you need; and the harder it is to fit on transports from ships to planes to railroad cars. BAE tried to square that circle with modular armor that could be built up and stripped down as needed, a technique both it and GDLS applied to the cancelled Ground Combat Vehicle, and Im surprised that SAIC didnt mention it.
But even taking armor on and off like sweaters can only adjust a vehicles weight and protection so much. In particular, for armored vehicles as for middle-aged humans, Bazaz said, its harder to lose weight than to put on a couple of pounds.
Whats Different This Time?
The tradeoffs of the so-called iron triangle mobility, protection, and firepower have killed or crippled every Army light tank program since 1950, when the M41 Walker Bulldog proved simultaneously too big for airdrops or reconnaissance but too small to fight Russian tanks. The lighter M551 Sheridan made it into combat in Vietnam and Panama, but it was alarmingly vulnerable and the recoil of its oversized gun tended to break its electronics. The M8 Armored Gun System and the Future Combat System were both cancelled. The Stryker Mobile Gun System, the only wheeled attempt to fill this role, fought in Iraq and Afghanistan but never overcame a troubled development.
Even the iconic M4 Sherman of World War II is an example of how tradeoffs can go wrong. Designed to fit easily on transport ships and to cross bridges, it was mobile, reliable, and deadly against older German tanks, but heavy Panthers and Tigers slaughtered it.
As Breaking D readers know, Army acquisition has a lousy track record in recent years on any kind of program. So how will this time be different? The Army did a really good job of not shooting for the stars, Bazaz said. Excessive high-tech ambition doomed FCS, which tried to pack the firepower and protection of a 70-ton M1 into a 20-ton vehicle. The Sheridan and Mobile Gun System simply had too much gun for their chassis to handle. (AGSs cancellation, by contrast, was almost entirely about budget).
This time, the Army has consulted industry about the art of the possible and restricted contractors to proven, off-the-shelf, technology. The service wants MPF to be easy to upgrade, with an open architecture for electronics, adequate electrical power and space for a future Active Protection System, and the potential to one day operate unmanned but for now, it needs to be a Non-Developmental Item (NDI).
There is no time to mature technology, said Bazaz. Its really an integration job that were performing here.
And integration, Scanlon says, is SAICs specialty. While the company is new to the armored fighting vehicle business, theyve worked on more than 40,000 MRAP mineproof trucks and other vehicles since 9/11, mostly integrating electronics but in many cases adding additional armor and even replacing the engine. As for SAICs partners, the CMI turret is already in production, while the STK chassis is just starting production for the Singaporean army after a decade of development and testing. But will all that groundwork let Team SAIC build their new machine at the same pace BAE updates their old one?
Speed is critical. The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, is trying to accelerate the sclerotic acquisition system, and MPF is a poster child for a faster, more disciplined way of buying weapons. The final Request For Proposals is expected in December, with the companies submitting their designs and one working vehicle each in March, and a final decision by early 2019. Isnt that a blisteringly fast schedule for an Army procurement program? Scanlon said: Its aggressive.
Individual components with leads that go through the board and get crimped and soldered. They did upgrade to surface mount as they had to because parts could no longer be purchased. But redesigning just because there wasn’t room in somebody else’s vehicle? No.
>>Anyone who still thinks its a viable battlefield usage to drop a tank from an airplane with a parachute needs to be on permanent end connector duty.
Growing up, a good friends dad was a West Point Armor officer, with a MSME from GA Tech the Army sent him to get. He ended up in a tank power plant development role in the late-70s, working in Detroit and living in quarters at Selfridge AFB. And had done two tours in Vietnam, so not just a back office staff guy. So some fairly serious hardware credentials.
Anyway, Ill always remember his commentary on the air-dropability of the M551:
Sure you can air drop a Sheridan - ONCE!
My immediate reaction is that wont be feasible until we have Foundation-level (Isaac Asimov) nuclear reactors. So were on the same page on this.
That used to be a good idea, then the Israelis got Trophy working really well and everyone but the US started fitting active protection systems to tanks. Now it’s questionable whether an ATGM will even work against an MBT if the MBT has some sort of APS; a long-rod penetrator/APFSDS projectile from a higher velocity gun stands a better chance of penetrating an APS.
That’s why modern weapons target the top of the tank.
Yay. It’s tuesday!
That in turn is why modern APS *protect* the top arc of the tank. Also, the US does not have vehicle mount ATGMs that do top attack. The only one we have is the man-portable Javelin, IIRC.
Are they putting engines in front (looks like it) to protect the crews like the Israelis did?
Thankfully, I never served in a Sheridan unit. I heard that even if the electronics survived an air drop, you’d have to change all the torsion bars.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.