The US Army has released a request for proposals for the concept deign stage of its optionally manned fighting vehicle program.
The concept design RFP follows a draft RFP from July 2020 after the service was forced to cancel a middle tier acquisition-rapid prototype (MTA-RP) solicitation in January in 2020 with only one bid received.
Following the RFP in July last year, the US Army hosted an OMFV industry day in December 2020 prior to releasing the concept design RFP with the aim of conducting modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) to provide information for requirements refinement and conduct initial design activities up to system functional review (SFR).
The government intends to award up to five firm-fixed price contracts, which will require contractors to complete concept designs culminating in a SFR. Contracts are expected to be awarded in the 3rd quarter of Fiscal Year 2021.
Phase 2 of the US Army’s Bradley fighting vehicle replacement program will be followed by detailed design contracts that will be awarded to up to three companies. In phase 4, contractors will build and test prototypes to verify performance against the performance specification and acceptability for production, including system reliability and maintainability. Late in this phase, a down select competition will be conducted for a single LRIP contractor based on the included options. The fifth and final phase will be production and fielding.
The concept design RFP was published on the government’s contracting site and is available here.
OMFV will serve as the Army’s infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) tasked to maneuver through the enemy’s disruption zone to deliver a decisive strike while manned or remote operated.
In the close fight, the OMFV will enable squads to maneuver by detecting and destroying targets at a range beyond the enemy’s capability. The vehicle will be expected to be capable of defeating future near peer soldiers, infantry fighting vehicles, helicopters, small unmanned aerial systems and tanks as part of the combined arms.
The army will not expect the OMFV to fight alone, but rather as part of a section, platoon, and company of mechanized infantry. These companies will execute cross-domain maneuver and defeat pacing threats in the close area while maneuvering Soldiers to tactical objectives.
The OMFV will deploy and be transportable by standard air, rail, sea, waterway and road modes of transportation.
