US Army Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle

Raytheon and Rheinmetall have formed a joint venture to offer the Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle for the US Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, or OMFV, competition.
The US-based joint venture is called Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems. 

Scheduled for fielding in 2026, the OMFV, formerly known as the Next Generation Combat Vehicle, is expected to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle. The new vehicle will be optimised for urban combat and rural terrain. The OMFV is a top modernisation priority supported under the US Army's Futures Command structure.

Previous efforts to replace the Bradley — the Future Combat System (FCS) Program and the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program — were cancelled for “cost-associated reasons.”

According to the US Congressional Research Service, the OMFV is expected to be fielded in 2026. In parallel, the Army plans to develop three complementary classes of Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCVs), which will help protect the OMFV in combat and provide additional fire support. However, Congress has  reservations about the OMFV program, not least of which is how it will avoid the same fate as the cancelled FCS and GCV programs?

As part of their bid for the OMFV programme, Raytheon and Rheinmetall propose that the Lynx be built in America. “Our team will produce and deliver a fighting vehicle to the US Army that protects troops and gives them an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield,” said Sam Deneke, Raytheon Land Warfare Systems vice president.

The Lynx is a next-generation, tracked armoured fighting vehicle designed to address the critical challenges of the future battlefield. Rheinmetall says the Lynx provides ample growth capacity to support new technologies over the vehicle’s lifetime, and features lower lifecycle costs. 

“Lynx will be built in America by American workers,” said Ben Hudson, global head of Rheinmetall’s Vehicle Systems division. “By choosing Lynx, the Army has an extraordinary opportunity to provide US troops with a fighting vehicle that will enable them to outmatch the threat for decades to come.”

Raytheon technology earmarked for the Lynx include advanced weapons like the TOW missile, an Active Protection System, third-generation sights, the Coyote unmanned aircraft system and cyber. 

The Lynx team submitted its bid for the OMFV on or before Oct. 1, 2019. According to Defence News, the Army is expected to choose two teams to build 14 OMFV prototypes in the second quarter next year.