On February 9th, the Army issued a market survey for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program, formally marking the official “restart” to produce a transformational infantry fighting vehicle.
“Industry feedback and partnerships are imperative in moving forward with OMFV, as with all of our modernization efforts,” said Dr. Bruce Jette, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. “This is the first step in that process — seeking industry feedback on our characteristics and understanding how industry can innovatively solve our problem set.”
Army leadership from every level is overwhelmingly supportive of significant industry participation in assisting with the revised OMFV approach, and this is the first step in delivering that promise.
“We are not releasing a prescribed set of requirements — we are describing the problem set and giving industry the freedom to be creative and innovative in their approach,” said Gen. John (Mike) Murray, commanding general of Army Futures Command. “We will start by releasing broad vehicle characteristics that will be refined through a series of industry engagements, digital design competitions and soldier touch points to inform and sharpen OMFV final prototypes for testing.”
The prototypes used for testing will ultimately yield requirements for production. This approach will enable the Army to explore the solution space in an environment of rapid and inexpensive learning, leading to verification through physical prototypes, soldier input and testing.
“These encounters are intended to challenge biases and confirm state-of-the-art technologies available to support the ABCT commander on the modern battlefield,” said Jette. “Not only will it deliver innovation, it will maximize competition and ultimately produce a vehicle that will dominate in multi-domain operations for generations.”
What continues to remains clear is this: OMFV is a critical capability and it is imperative the Army gets it right.
The market survey for OMFV can be found at: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/37a6d32f8ef34272bd94c8340f05dd41/view