The U.S. Army is embarking on a fourth attempt to build a new infantry fighting vehicle to replace the M2 Bradley.

The OMFV will emphasize protection above all else, ensuring it can keep its cargo of a squad of soldiers safe against battlefield threats.

The new will be so heavy the service thinks sea transport will be the OMFV’s primary means of travel.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Undeterred by its most recent failure, the U.S. Army announced a new effort to replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The Army is rebooting the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, a vehicle meant to fight with or without a human crew, but is finally making hard decisions about how well protected the vehicle is, one that will drive other considerations including how it reaches the battlefield.

The new Bradley fighting vehicle during exercise Shadow Hawk, Jordan, 1987. Historical Getty Images

The M2 Bradley was first introduced in the 1980s as a complement to the then-new M1 Abrams main battle tank. The M2 was an infantry fighting vehicle, a relatively new concept in mechanized warfare designed to carry troops directly into battle rather than dismount them at the outset and force them to fight on foot. The M2, carrying a total of nine troops across deadly battlefields needed to be heavily armored and capable of engaging light armored vehicles and even tanks. The M2 has served ever since, progressively upgraded to the new M2A3 standard deployed across armored and infantry formations across the U.S. Army and National Guard.

Artist’s impression of the Ground Combat Vehicle. U.S. Army

The Army has tried three times to replace the M2, first in the 2000s with the Future Combat System of vehicles, then the Ground Combat Vehicle, then the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV). Each time it has failed, with at least $18.5 billion spent without a single vehicle procured.

Now, three months after Army canceled OMFV, it's about to restart the effort. This time it’s announced a list of priorities the new vehicle should reflect, something it didn’t do before. The OMFV, the Army has announced, should above all else be a survivable platform that can carry troops across the battlefield to victory.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Today’s Bradley incorporates a number of new technologies, including attachments for reactive armor, antennas, steel track protection, and a commanders independent thermal viewer. Winifred Brown, DVIDS

The original Bradley fighting vehicle weighed 33.6 tons, utilizing high laminate 7000 series aluminum as a lightweight armor. The Bradley -A2 variant improved armor protection with spaced laminate belts and steel side skirts to protect the tracks. Finally, the -A3 version incorporates so-called reactive armor, shoebox-sized panels of explosives attached to the outside of the vehicle designed to defeat the shaped charge warheads of anti-tank rockets and missiles.

Today, nearly four decades after joining the U.S. Army, the M2 is showing its age. The Army has gradually piled on new tech, in many cases bolting it to the outside of the vehicle. One improvement it hasn’t been able to pile on, however, is armored protection. Passive armor, in the form of steel, aluminum, composites, ceramics, or even depleted uranium has weight to it. Weight increases stress to the vehicle’s transmission and makes it more sluggish.

The new OMFV’s first five priorities are survivability, mobility, growth, lethality, and weight. That line of priorities virtually ensures the new vehicle will be larger and heavier than the M2 Bradley. The OMFVs will carry more passive protection (physical armor) and almost certainly incorporate an active protection system designed to shoot down incoming rockets and missiles. OMFV will, like a Timex watch, take a licking and keep on ticking.

Namer IFV with the new unmanned turret. Wikipedia user Ishaiabigail Wikimedia Commons

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

One example of an OMFV-type vehicle already in service is Israel’s Namer IFV. Namer , based on the Merkava IV tank, weighs 60 tons, carries nine infantrymen (three more than the M2), and is protected by the Trophy Active Protection System. Namer’s armor level is classified but it is almost certainly the best protected infantry fighting vehicle in existence. Namer is equipped with an unmanned turret armed with a 30-millimeter gun and two Spike MR anti-armor missiles.

OMFV will be an absolute unit, an armored vehicle so heavy the Army is resigned to moving it by ship. Ideally OMFVs will be in place before a war starts, particularly against heavily armored threats such as the Russian Army. If a crisis requires rapidly deployable U.S. Army forces, there are always the Stryker brigades, light infantry, paratroopers, and mountain troops to send instead.

It seems increasingly likely the OMFV won’t be for every crisis, just ones involving the Russians.