It's hard not to automatically think of this as just another program to turn taxpayer dollars into contractor profits, with fielding any results secondary.

If they wanted results in a timely, efficient and cost effective manner then CV90120 is available off the shelf at around 35 tons, and they still have the XM8/Thunderbolt gathering dust.

 

We're in a Cold War 2 naval, air, missile, cyber, and space arms race with China. Note the absence of anything to do with 'land' in that conflict/competition.

Yet, here we are, buying more Tanks... 

XM8 is one of the two candidates for MPF, so it's hardly gathering dust. 

CV90 certainly could have been offered, but the right version would have to be CV90105, since MPF appears to have settled on a 105mm gun.  But BAE decided to bid XM8 instead.

But this whole "XYZ is available off the shelf" meme just shows that people don't understand how government procurement works.  Buying a major weapon system in a non-competitive procurement based on their brochure specs isn't even remotely legal.  Or wise.

With these high profile hulls and thin-skinned manned turrets they might just as well stick an MGS turret from a Stryker on a Bradley and be done with it ,it should make it inside 40 tons

ASCOD's hull height is 1.77 meters. Assuming AJAX/MPF hasn't changed that, it's all of 5 cm taller than an M1.  Horrible!

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.