Light tank prototypes arrive at Fort Bragg for soldier evaluation

 WASHINGTON — Prototype candidates competing to be the new light tank for the U.S. infantry are being delivered to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Army announced in a Dec. 11 statement, where soldiers will help decide which vehicle will prevail.By: Jen Judson    10 hours ago

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General Dynamics’ offering for the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower combines a version of its latest Abrams turret with a chassis that leverages experience from the United Kingdom’s AJAX program. (Richard Watt/British Ministry of Defence)

“Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne will soon get the chance to do something no U.S. infantry soldier has done in 26 years — employ a dedicated mobile, direct fire vehicle platform against hardened positions, dismounted personnel and light armored vehicles,” the statement reads.

The soldier vehicle assessment of two different Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) prototypes for infantry brigade combat teams will start on Jan. 4, 2021 and run through June 2021.

BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems were chosen in December 2018 to each build 12 prototypes of the Army’s future MPF vehicle identified in the service’s ground combat vehicle strategy published in 2015. Infantry Brigade Combat Teams don’t have a combat vehicle that provides “mobile, protected, direct, offensive fire capability,” organic to those units and that is capable against near-peer and peer threats, according to the statement.

GDLS is building a vehicle that takes the United Kingdom’s AJAX chassis and combines it with an M1 Abrams tank turret.