A mystery military wheeled vehicle was spotted during a visit from Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to the General Dynamics’s Detroit facility.
A curious photo circulating military news magazines shows a small exhibition at the General Dynamics facility. The released photo showed the undefined vehicle that was displayed include with other the defense contractor’s newly developed and combat-proven vehicles.
The vehicle is not shown completely but you can see on the roof a special platform and a cabin with two doors. A sticker with the company logo is also visible on one of these doors.
The company’s portfolio, or rather subsidiaries, has wheeled vehicles, but they do not look like this object. Perhaps this is one of the prototypes that was tested earlier or a combat vehicle that is being developed to participate in future competitions for the purchase of light tactical vehicles for the U.S. Army and special forces.
Farooq Bhai wrote in response to our post that it is an Advanced Ground Mobility Vehicle (AGMV), the product of a joint venture between General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) Tactical Vehicles division and AM General, LLC.
“Nothing mysterious in it. That’s GDLS entry to AGMV competition in 2007” Jim Atkinson wrote in response to Defence Blog’s tweet.
In addition, for the first time was unveiled prototype of Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV).
OMFV program covers developing a next generation fighting vehicle to replace the Bradley to provide the capabilities required to defeat a future near-peer competitor’s force focusing on survivability, mobility, growth, lethality, weight, logistics, transportability, manning, and training. The Army is seeking a transformational increase in warfighting capability, not simply another incremental improvement over the current Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
At the Rapid Prototyping phase, the Army was faced with a number of difficulties and was decided to cancel current OMFV solicitation, but this does not mean the end of the road for the future optionally manned fighting vehicle.
Since its inception, the OMFV program has represented an innovative approach to Army acquisition by focusing on delivering an essentially new capability to armored brigade combat teams under a significantly reduced timeline compared to traditional acquisition efforts.
The Army plans to revise and re-solicit the OMFV requirements on a competitive basis.
