taschoene said:

They have shown AJAX with a 50mm turret as Griffin III.  So you definitely could fit the MPF chassis with that turret to make a companion vehicle to operate alongside the tank gun version.

I'm more thinking of the protection aspect and not the armament. None of these IFV hulls will have the level of protection needed to be practical. And they are the same size as the Abrams anyway. I'm sure they don't seriously consider the MPF to be intended to deal with tanks so the actual armament is fluid. 50 mm and AGL and 4 helfires would do the job I expect.

Seems the U.S. Army has its heart set on a 105 mm or better gun.

They have been talking about this since at least 2018. It doesn't seem to be a priority.

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/12/army-picks-bae-gd-for-mpf-light-tank-prototypes/

I think mortar armed vehicles are a no go. Light Infantry Battalions  already have these. Seems the Army is looking for something with some stand off distance for direct fire.

Less than two years from contract downselect (in December 2018) to prototype deliveries for trials (in October 2020) is pretty fast, really.  

For the Defense two years is not bad.

It appears that  BAE's submission is based on the M8 mobile gun system they 1st tried to get a contract with the Army for in 1996. Of course the latest submission has been modernized.  Better electronics etc.

It's not that I don't know how procurement works.

I just don't think we can survive it much longer.

Lots of the folks we'd be fighting alongside have land borders with China. So an easier to deploy tank wouldn't be a bad idea.

Would the Bradley vibrate apart like the 105-armed Strykers did?

Farmplinker said:

Lots of the folks we'd be fighting alongside have land borders with China. So an easier to deploy tank wouldn't be a bad idea.

Not a tank and no one is fighting China any time soon. Same as Russia. Proxy wars will be it for ground combat for a while. A dedicated anti infantry vehicle would however be of use and very exportable. 

Refleks said:

I just don't think we can survive it much longer.

I used to describe peak capitalism as a baseball bat and a balaclava behind the most expensive hotel in town. But I think military procurement has that beat. Far more money for far less effort.

I just cannot figure out a credible and probable scenario of "peer confrontation". Even if miraculously nuclear umbrella is avoided somehow, anyways there are not a clear place in earth in which such confrontation would happen.

Proxy wars have happened since the 1950's. I would be for new ones, although with plenty of unmanned resources, and also confrontations with no state actors