The U.S. Army christened its newest combat vehicle, the M10 Booker, on April 18, 2024, during a ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The M10 Booker represents a new, modernized capability for the Army, allowing light maneuver forces to overmatch adversaries. In June 2023, the Army announced the vehicle platform was named to honor two enlisted Army Soldiers who served our nation selflessly during times of great conflict — Medal of Honor recipient Pvt. Robert D. Booker, who perished in World War II; and Distinguished Service Cross recipient Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker, who died from injuries sustained in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In late February, the Army took delivery of the first M10 Booker vehicle at Anniston Army Depot. To date, three production M10 Booker vehicles have been delivered to the Army. The Booker provides infantry brigades overwhelming precision firepower, allowing it to maintain momentum and freedom of action against enemy forces.
The M10 Booker Combat Vehicle without a doubt brings a new level of lethality and protection to our infantry forces and will allow our infantry Soldiers to gain and maintain the speed and momentum that is critical on the modern battlefield. Over the next two years, the Army will put the M10 Booker through a battery of testing to ensure it meets the rigorous standards required to provide Soldiers with world class capability. This testing will include firing thousands of rounds of ammunition and driving thousands of miles to understand the reliability and maintainability for the program. During the next several months, the M10 Booker will be involved in an operational test with the 82nd Airborne Division, all culminating in fielding the first operational company of M10 Booker Combat Vehicles to the 82nd Airborne in the summer of 2025.
“We will also put the vehicle through production qualification and testing in desert, arctic, temperate and tropical conditions, challenging it with obstacles like gaps and walls to scale, and engaging it with real word threats to ensure its survivability,” said Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems.
“The M10 Booker delivered precisely as requested by the Army, completing a competitive and accelerated rapid prototyping effort with direct involvement form Soldiers,” said Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, director of the next generation combat vehicles cross functional team.
The M10 Booker is formerly known as the Mobile Protected Firepower Vehicle.The MPF was officially designated “M10 Booker” in June 2023, named for two American soldiers. One was Private Robert D. Booker who was killed on 9 April 1943, during the Tunisian campaign of World War II, and who was awarded the Medal of Honor. The other was Staff Sergeant Stevon Booker who was killed on 5 April 2003, during a “Thunder Run” in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The M10 Booker supports the infantry formation by providing organic overwhelming firepower and situational awareness capabilities that allow them to defeat hard targets and maintain momentum and freedom of action.
The vehicle is called a light tank by some military officers and defense media due to its design and appearance, though Army officials related to the MPF program consider this incorrect. It is to weigh about 42 tons and will according to description essentially serve the role of an assault gun. It features cutting edge, mature technologies to bring the best proven capabilities available to light infantry formations. The vehicle was developed under the U.S. Army’s Middle Tier Acquisition Pathway used to rapidly develop fieldable prototypes within an acquisition program to demonstrate new capabilities and rapidly field production quantities of systems with proven technologies that require minimal development. The platform will provide greater survivability, the ability to identify threat systems earlier and at greater distances and will not restrict movement in off-road terrain.
The M10 Booker will provide IBCTs with mobile, protected direct-fire capability to apply lethal and sustained long-range fires to light armored vehicles, hardened enemy fortifications and dismounted personnel. The M10 Booker has a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour and is equipped with a 105mm M35 Primary Weapon, a 7.62mm Coax weapon, a 0.50 M2 commander’s weapon, the Abrams primary weapon sight, and two vehicles can be transported on a C-17. The 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Liberty will be the first unit to initially operate and test the M10 Booker, starting later this year. Over the next several years, “Mobile Protected Firepower” battalions will be fielded at Fort Johnson, La., Fort Campbell, Ky., Fort Liberty, N.C. and Fort Carson, Colo., and to the National Guard, ensuring light infantry formations will have the capability they need to fight.
