The U.S. Army’s G-8 collected feedback from industry and government partners and incorporated some of the lessons learned from the initial solicitation to come up with a new strategy for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, which is expected to replace the service’s Bradley fighting vehicles starting fiscal year 2028, the service reported Friday.
The Army decided to drop in January the solicitation for the OMFV program to review the effort’s acquisition strategy, requirements and schedule.
Army Futures Command established a set of nine characteristics – mobility, survivability, growth, lethality, logistics, weight, transportability, manning and training – as part of the adjusted requirements strategy for the OMFV program. The service plans to refine the characteristics through soldier touchpoints, digital design competitions and iterative process with industry.
“The Army believes that this adjusted requirement strategy preserves flexibility much longer into the acquisition process before necessitating significant hardware investments,” Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff of Army G-8, said Thursday at the Future Ground Combat Vehicles virtual conference.
Pasquarette noted that the new strategy will provide warfighters an opportunity to share their insights. “Throughout this process, Soldiers will assist the Army and industry partners in refining the vehicle’s characteristics in design and forming the most feasible and acceptable set of technical requirements for final production,” he added.
He said the Army has invested approximately $4.6B in the OMFV program from fiscal year 2020 through FY 2026.
