WORKFORCE
1981 & 2018
NEXT GENERATION ON TRACK
Bradley replacement promises to take a technological leap into the future fight.
T
he Bradley Fighting Vehicle of the past nearly 40 years, which, with the M1 Abrams tank, spear- headed the coalition victory over Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, is destined to be a part of history
before long. In its place will be a member of the Next Gener- ation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) family, a work in progress at the top of the list for the Army’s high-priority, multipart combat vehicle modernization initiative.
Te Bradley has undergone four major upgrades since its introduction in 1981, said Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, “and what we’ve seen to date is that the Bradley has been upgraded really to its limit.” Coffman, director of the Next Genera- tion Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team for the U.S. Army Futures Command, spoke with Army AL&T on Feb. 7. “Tose were extremely effective and really have served the Army in a great, great way in every battlefield I’ve been on,” he said. “But we can’t look backward, we’ve got to look forward.”
Te armored personnel carrier of the future, officially being developed as the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, will be stealthy, adaptable and able to defeat enemy fire, as Coff- man described it. Perhaps most important, it will be easy to upgrade. “ ‘Upgradability’ is king,” he said.
Upgradability will be important for the other four elements of the new ground combat vehicle, as well: the Armored
Multipurpose Vehicle, replacing the M113 Armored Person- nel Carrier, which also cannot accommodate any more upgrades; the Mobile Protected Firepower light tank; the Robotic Combat Vehicle; and the Optionally Manned Tank.
GETTING AHEAD OF THE FUTURE Te Bradley M2 and M3 Infantry and Cavalry Fighting Vehi- cles, respectively, were not quite in production when the Army began laying the groundwork for the generation to follow. An article in the May-June 1981 edition of Army RD&A, the predecessor to Army AL&T, described efforts by the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command (TACOM) to explore with Soldiers and industry the technological capabilities that Army combat vehicles would need on the future battlefield … of the mid-1990s.
In “Fighting Vehicles: Te Next Generation,” Clifford D. Bradley, then-chief of the Exploratory Development Divi- sion of TACOM’s Tank-Automotive Concepts Laboratory, described a May 21, 1980, all-day presolicitation conference that his laboratory hosted to discuss future close-combat vehicles with some 220 representatives from industry and government. “Te objective of the conference was to bring the best ‘brains’ of industry together for the specific purpose of inviting them to look at the challenge of the follow-on vehicles,” the aptly named Bradley wrote.
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