U.S. Army Seeks a New Light Tank for Quickly Deployed Force
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:
U.S. Army seeks a new light tank for quickly deployed force:
According to a recent service statement, the Army will begin independent operational testing and evaluation of two light tank prototypes developed by the General Dynamics and BAE Systems under the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program in January 2021 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The MPF program is the first under the Army Futures Command Cross-Functional Team for Next Generation Combat Vehicle that fills a critical capability gap.
[...] The 'light tanks' would help infantry Soldiers blast through obstacles, take out machine-gun nests and defend against other armored vehicles.
At least two of them would need to fit on a C-17 cargo aircraft[*], and each vehicle would weigh less than 40 tons, much lighter than an M1 Abrams tank that can weigh 60 tons or more.
[*] Boeing C-17 Globemaster III.
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