Raytheon Company and Rheinmetall Defence have established a joint venture to modify their the Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle for the U.S. Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, (OMFV) competition. Scheduled for fielding in 2026, the OMFV is expected to replace the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle fighting vehicle. The new vehicle will be optimized for urban combat and rural terrain. The Army has named the OMFV as a top modernization priority supported under the service’s Futures Command structure. The U.S.-based joint venture is called Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems LLC.
The number of Bradley IFVs to be replaced exceeds 4,700 and the U.S. Army’s new approach is at least two years behind the original requirement so the involvement of the Army Futures Command, which was founded specifically for this purpose, should speed up the process. During the first approach in 2019, BAE Systems initially expressed interest with the CV90 Mk IV but did not submit a bid, the Raytheon/Rheinmetall consortium’s offer of the K41 Lynx was not accepted for formal reasons andy General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) bid with the Griffin was rejected due to technical defects.
Lynx is a next-generation, tracked armored fighting vehicle designed to address the critical challenges of the future battlefield. Lynx provides ample growth capacity to support new technologies over the vehicle’s lifetime, and features lower life-cycle costs. Raytheon technology earmarked for the Lynx includes the company’s advanced weapons, like the TOWâ„¢ missile, Active Protection System, third-generation sights, Coyote® unmanned aircraft system and cyber.
Lynx is an armoured fighting vehicle developed by Rheinmetall Landsysteme (part of Rheinmetall’s Vehicle Systems division). According to Rheinmetall, the Lynx family of tracked armoured vehicles is at the forefront of a new trend in IFV design toward armoured vehicles with lower unit and through-life costs and reduced complexity. One of the key principles of the Lynx concept is the integration of proven sub-systems with a high technology readiness level to reduce development time, cost and technical risk.
