L3Harris Technologies and its Team Lynx partners, led by American Rheinmetall Vehicles (ARV), won a contract to design and prototype the U.S. Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, now the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle. The Lynx team also includes Textron Systems, Raytheon, Allison Transmission and Anduril Industries. Team Lynx will produce a vehicle design then build and test prototypes to increase mobility, lethality and safety for future warfighters. The Army awarded contracts with a value in excess of $700 million to two groups with a final contract expected in 2027.
L3Harris is providing digitally engineered mission systems that adhere to a modular and open-systems approach to lower lifecycle costs. The systems enable battlefield awareness for faster identification and targeting capabilities as well as secure, high-capacity communication systems and data links to improve command and control for collaborative targeting. The XM30 will replace the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and is the Army’s first ground combat vehicle designed using modern, digital engineering tools and techniques. XM30 is part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle initiative, which is one of the Army’s top six development and modernization priorities.
Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems Lynx KF41 Armoured Fighting Vehicle. (Photo by Rheinmetall)
“We welcome the opportunity to continue working with our partners to produce the most advanced and most secure vehicles for our warfighters,” said Ed Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. “We are developing innovative technologies that will pave the way for future battlefield dominance. This includes a vehicle with superior protection, unsurpassed firepower and unbeatable mobility that features L3Harris third-generation sights to identify threats better and earlier.”
The Lynx is a German armoured fighting vehicle developed by Rheinmetall Landsysteme. 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. In October 2018, Rheinmetall announced a teaming with Raytheon to propose the Lynx KF41 to the U.S. Army in answer to its developing Next-Generation Combat Vehicle program, this slated to replace the Bradley Fighting Vehicles and other current platforms.[30] This program, now known as the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program, was halted on 16 January 2020. The U.S. stated it was cancelling the OMFV prototyping competition in order to revisit the requirements and acquisition timeline.
Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems Lynx KF41 Armoured Fighting Vehicle. (Photo by Rheinmetall)
