Heavy Competition For Light Tank: SAIC & Singapore Vs. BAE, GDLS

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on October 06, 2017 at 10:59 AM

If the stars align for defense contractor SAIC, the US Army and Marine Corps will soon be buying hundreds of armored vehicles designed in Singapore.

Yesterday, six months after joining forces for the first time on the Marines’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle competition – and just four days before the massive Association of the US Army conference opens in DC – Virginia-based SAIC and Singapore Technologies Kinetics officially announced they are teaming up again for the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower program, a light tank to support light infantry in places where the massive M1 Abrams cannot go.


SAIC will replace the SIngaporean NGAFV’s current turret with CMI’s 105 mm turret

SAIC didn’t go in planning another team-up with STK, SAIC Defense Systems general manager Jim Scanlon told me. “We talked to a lot of different folks… around the globe, visited them and so forth,” Scanlon said. “It wasn’t preconceived going in” that they’d partner with the Singaporeans again, but “for the vehicle chassis, what STK was doing was the best.” SAIC plans to offer the chassis of Singapore’s brand-new Next Generation Armored Fighting Vehicle (NGAFV) with a Cockerill 3105 turret from Belgium’s CMI. Working closely together, Scanlon said, the team is “a viable alternative… to the more traditional GD and BAE.”

That makes two contracts now where the upstart SAIC-STK team is going head to head with defense giant BAE Systems. BAE makes the Army’s M2 Bradley, AMPV utility vehicle, and M109 Paladin howitzer. BAE also won the Army’s previous, cancelled program for a light tank: The M8 Buford Armored Gun System (AGS), which BAE is updating for MPF with new electronics, a new engine, and improved protection.

Unlike its rivals, who must come up with new tanks on a tight timeline, BAE’s benefits from years of painstaking, bespoke optimization for this exact role. “The requirement that was established in the ’90s really hasn’t significantly changed,” BAE’s VP for combat vehicles, Deepak Bazaz, told me. “We’re really purpose-built for that particular mission.”

The third, quieter contender is General Dynamics Land Systems, another established armored vehicle firm, which builds the Army’s M1 Abrams heavy tank and its eight-wheel-drive Stryker armored vehicles. Unlike SAIC and BAE, GDLS didn’t offer an interview for this article. From past statements and other published clues, however, they’ll likely offer an evolution of the Griffin demonstrator they showed at last year’s AUSA. Similar to the SAIC-STK design, the Griffin took an existing chassis, the British Ajax scout vehicle, and added a different turret derived from the M1. Unlike SAIC, however, GDLS builds both the Ajax and M1 itself, so it didn’t need a partner.

U.S. Army Tanks to Get Active Protection Systems by 2020

The Israeli-made Trophy system is headed to the M1 Abrams.

By Kyle Mizokami
Oct 10, 2017

A so-called active protection system—defense tech that can shoot down threats to tanks and other armored vehicles—will equip a brigade of U.S. Army tanks, protecting them during a deployment to Europe in 2020. The Israeli-made Trophy system will be retrofitted on up to 80 M1 Abrams tanks, providing added protection against modern tank-killing threats.

The Trophy system is manufactured and marketed by Israeli defense contractor Rafael and international defense contractor Leonardo. It works by ringing a tank with flat panel radar sensors that constantly monitor for incoming threats. Once an incoming tank round, anti-tank missile, or shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket is detected on a collision course with the tank, the Trophy system launches a number of explosively formed projectiles (metal sheets deformed by an explosion into a projectile) in a shotgun-like pattern at the incoming threat weapon. Trophy either detonates the incoming warhead or knocks the object down.

Trophy is called a "hardkill" system (as opposed to "softkill", a system that accomplishes its mission by jamming or distracting the threat), and Trophy offers 360-degree coverage. That's especially useful on main battle tanks, which concentrate their thickest armor to the front of the tank, leaving their flanks and rear surfaces vulnerable. Trophy is also effective against high-angle threats, rockets and missiles aimed from aircraft and helicopters. It can even engage multiple incoming threats.

Colonel Glenn Dean, a project manager at the Army's Redstone Arsenal, told Military.com, "I tried to kill the Abrams tank 48 times and failed."

AUSA 2017: MPF moves forward with draft RFP

10th October 2017 - 09:10 GMT | by Grant Turnbull, Stephen Miller in Washington DC
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The US Army has released a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for its Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) requirement, with industry likely to respond with feedback this week.

The MPF is the army's latest attempt to field an armoured vehicle to move with and support its light deployable ground units, the Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCT).

According to David Dopp, project lead for the army's newly-stood up MPF programme office, the final RFP in scheduled for November with industry proposals due in April 2018. 

Bidders are required to provide a sample of their system with the proposal. 

The absence of potential MPF platforms at this year's AUSA is a sign that industry is preparing their finalised proposals for the deadline, said Maj Gen David Bassett, Program Executive Offer of Ground Combat Systems.

'I haven't started paying yet, but industry has started the MPF programme today,' said Bassett.

Contract awards are schedule for 12 months after proposals are submitted, and first prototypes are expected to be delivered 15 months after contract award. Six months after that it is expected the initial units will be equipped.

First export for VT4.

So now the Thais got this and Ukrainian Oplot?

A few days before AUSA 2017 Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced it would developed prototypes for the MPF programme. The company will work together with ST Kinetics and CMI Defence. SAIC will base its offer on ST Kinetics’ Next Generation Armoured Fighting Vehicle (NGAFV) chassis. It will be most likely equipped with CMI Defence’s Cockerill 3105-series turret. General Dynamics Land Systems and BAE Systems are also competing. (Photo: Robert Czulda)

This is like the medium tank of Indo/Turk?

The photo taken from H-6K?

video is at mark 7:46




its actually the plaaf su-30mkk "aggressor"
the camo pattern is pretty consistent with the unit no.20694

What type of tank is this? Mindefmalaysia tweet this pic together with Malaysia pavilion in Bidec 2017(bahrain defense show)

MINDEF Malaysia @MINDEFMalaysia

What type of tank is this? Mindefmalaysia tweet this pic together with Malaysia pavilion in Bidec 2017(bahrain defense show)

MINDEF Malaysia @MINDEFMalaysia