TACOM – Land Systems

What is now the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command got its start in 1942, 20 years prior to AMC, with the creation of the Tank-Automotive Center (TA-C) to manage the Ordnance Department’s rapidly growing automotive production and distribution program, including trucks and other transport vehicles moved to Ordnance from the Quartermaster Corps. With tank and automotive operations centralized in Detroit, TA-C spent nearly half of the Ordnance Department’s World War II funds, producing more than 3 million vehicles, from bicycles to tanks.

TA-C was renamed the Office, Chief of Ordnance-Detroit (OCO-D) in January 1944; post-war demobilization led to its demise in 1946 and transfer of functions and personnel to the Detroit Arsenal, which became the center of Ordnance activities until the start of the Korean War, when OCO-D was resurrected as the Ordnance Tank-Automotive Center (OTAC).

The 1962 reorganization under AMC led to a new designation – the U.S. Army Mobility Command – which included the Weapons System Command and had responsibility for everything from locomotives and rolling stock to fixed-wing and rotary aircraft to general purpose and tactical vehicles. OTAC soon became the Army Tank Automotive Center (ATAC), which was redesignated yet again in 1967 as the Tank Automotive Command (TACOM), a major AMC subordinate command. It immediately began taking control of Army tank-automotive systems, including the armored personnel carrier mission and, in 1972, the tank management program.

“The creation of AMC helped define roles and responsibilities and reduce overlap. From 1962 forward, that has continued to increase in terms of procurement, development and management of weapons systems and expertise getting developed and maturing in-house. Prior to that, industry really had the expertise,” Michael Viggato, deputy to the commander, said. “Now the Army began developing expertise in procurement, becoming better consumers and building in-house expertise with combat vehicles, becoming what today would be called a combat vehicle center of excellence.

“That became even more important in the 1990s, with the creation of the PEOs. But regardless of the name, under TACOM LCMC, even with the PEOs and creation of RDECOM, this is where the Army always has come to when a new vehicle goes out, regardless of the electronics or weapons. MRAP, for example, was a Marine Corps program, but the Army got the majority of the vehicles and TACOM has done the support. Stryker went from concept to deployment very quickly.”

The command went through an additional assortment of name, organizational and structural changes every decade, leading to a 1994 designation as the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. With the stand-up of RDECOM 10 years later, the R&D element was moved out for the last time.

“RDECOM is huge for us. TARDEC has bounced under us, then out again, which is interesting, but doesn’t change the relationship,” Viggato said. “They are key to any development program and are a nice tie-in, as the integration center, reaching out to the other labs, especially CERDEC.”

Perhaps the biggest recent change, however, came with the 2004 decision of AMC and the Assistant Secretary of the Army-Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA ALT) to add Life Cycle Management to AMC’s major commodity commands.

Throughout its history, TACOM has been heavily involved with Foreign Military Sales and working with allies.

“We do a lot with FMS, which is a huge area for us, in the $6 to $10 billion range every year. We currently have three intensive management offices – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Australia – not counting Iraq and Afghanistan. The Saudi Sword project goes back to the early ’90s, creating their armored force,” he said.

“Now we’re also seeing a much larger influence in the Pacific Rim, including India, which used to buy a lot of equipment from Russia, but now is looking more closely at what the U.S. has to offer. The PACRIM nations buy a lot of trucks, but there also are a lot more combat systems coming up – Cambodia, Bangladesh, Thailand.”

From the standup of AMC through the drawdown in Afghanistan, TACOM LCMC and its predecessors have produced and fielded a wide range of combat vehicles.

“The 1960s would see the last attempt by the Army to build a light tank – the M551 Sheridan. Medium tanks – or the new designation of Main Battle Tank – began production in 1960 with the M60, as a response to the Soviet T54. The M60 would continue to see service until 1990, when it was replaced by the M1 Abrams,” said Randy Talbot, TACOM command historian. “Two vehicles that became important in the current war also saw their beginnings in the 1960s – the M9 Armored Combat Earthmover and the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle, which began in 1965 as the XM706 and would see service in Vietnam with the Military Police.”

“We began adding computers to weapons systems in the 1970s, experimenting on the 551 and emplacing it on the M60. That led to turret stabilization, which gives you the ability to shoot and move, and digital laser sighting,” he continued. “The M60A2 was a major disappointment due to its complexity, but provided valuable technological research for the M1 system. So a lot of what is now on the M1 had its genesis with the 551, which was the Army’ last attempt to build a light, air-droppable tank.”

“There is no doubt about it, the most important system coming out of the 1980s was the M1 tank, which changed the battlefield. You also could include the Humvee and the Bradley, but the M1 combined arms, mobility, speed, power – everything you could want in one system. In addition, the M1 and Bradley really were compatible systems that worked well together,” Talbot recalled.

“Those systems really changed the Army and combat forever. Just the M1, Bradley and Humvee returned the battlefield to operational warfare, fighting whole divisions rather than the almost one-on-one combat of Vietnam. And when you have three systems like that all moving at 45 mph, it won’t take them long to get to you.”

“Operation Desert Storm showed the maneuverability and firepower of the current fleet of vehicles, but also showed shortcomings in other systems. The 1990s sought to upgrade current systems with new technology while beginning production on tactical wheeled vehicle systems in an effort to standardize, upgrade and improve the Army’s tactical fleet,” Talbot said.

“By the mid-2000s, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan required new vehicle systems, new technology on older systems, modifications, upgrades and armor packages,” Talbot said. “Just as the Abrams was the obvious big change in the ’90s, the Stryker was the biggest development in the 2000s. Three days before 9/11, we signed the contract for the Stryker; 18 months later, it was in the field.

“Stryker also changed the dynamics of the battle. You can hear an M1 tank coming; you can’t hear a Stryker, so you’ve added another element as we change the force structure to the Brigade Combat Team, with Stryker at its center. With it, the BCT becomes a self-contained battle group. It’s almost plug-and-play – what do you need, add the right force package and away you go, in 24 to 48 hours. It also was built with the ability to expand and modernize, which is something new.”

TACOM Highlights

 1960s

• M551 Sheridan Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicle entered production
• M60 Main Battle Tank began production in 1960 and the M60A1 RISE (Reliability Improved Selected Equipment) in 1963
• M163 Vulcan Air Defense System
• M113 Armored Personnel Carrier and, in 1964, the M113A1, with a diesel rather than gasoline engine
• M151 Jeep, replaced in 1969 by the M151A2
• M109 155 mm self-propelled howitzer (1963)

1970s

• M109A1 (1970)
• M35 series 2 ½-ton “Deuce” (1970), upgraded to fully diesel versions
• M60A2 MBT (1974), first with a laser rangefinder
• M109A2 (1978)
• M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle System (1978)
• M60A3 MBT (1979), added solid state ballistic computer, laser rangefinder and turret stabilization
• M113A2 (1979)
• M800 series 5-ton truck

1980s

• M1 Abrams MBT (1981), with an M105 main gun, replaced (1985) by a 120 mm smoothbore main cannon
• M2A0 Bradley (1981), first fielded production model
• Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck system (1982)
• High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (1984), aka “Humvee”
• M2A1 (1985), with NBC protection and TOW launcher
• M1A2 (1986), with commander’s weapons station
• M2A2 (1988), improved engine/transmission and explosive reactive armor
• M109A3, with semi-automatic loading and automatic fire control system with a ballistic computer
• M109A4, with NBC protection
• M109A5, with a new cannon
• M109 ACE, with improved engine, transmission, armor

1990s

• Palletized Load System (1993), new common platform for transportation, up to 16.5 tons with a trailer carrying a comparable load
• M1070 Heavy Equipment Transporter System (1993), with M1000 HET Trailer
• Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (1996) entered the inventory with common platform for 5-ton vehicles, while the Light Tactical Vehicles did the same for the 2 ½-ton system

2000s

• M109A6 Paladin (2000), improved survivability, armor, firepower, range, rate/accuracy of fire
• M1A2 System Enhancement Package (2001), added digitization, flat panel displays, thermal management system, improved range finding, forward looking infrared (FLIR)
• M2A3 (2001), totally digital, improved electronics, armor, fire-suppression system and NBC equipment
• Stryker Family of Vehicles (2002) – Infantry Carrier, Mobile Gun System, Mortar Carrier and Engineer, Command & Control, Medical Evacuation, Reconnaissance, NBC Reconnaissance, Fire Support and Anti-Tank Guided Missile vehicles
• Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (2007) – the MRAP was DoD’s fastest design-to-field vehicle, with more than 20,000 ordered from multiple manufacturers and fielded in a matter of weeks
• M1A2 SEP v2 (2008)