The U.S. Army has issued a request for proposals for a combat vehicle program designed to address the capability gap in the service’s infantry brigade combat teams and operate alongside ground mobility and light reconnaissance vehicles within the IBCT structure.
A FedBizOpps notice published Nov. 21 says the Mobile Protected Firepower program seeks to provide IBCTs with direct-fire, long-range and cyber-resilient capability for forcible or early-entry operations as well as back full-range military measures.
The service will carry out the MPF program through the engineering, manufacturing development and low-rate initial production phases with plans to award up to two EMD contracts in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.
The Army will require each contractor to build 12 pre-production vehicles with two ballistic hull and turrets, special tools and test equipment, cyber bench, armor coupons and system support packages under the EMD phase as it plans to equip the initial unit by 2025.
Under the EMD phase, the service will allocate $176 million in funds in FY 2019, $311 million in FY 2020, $360 million in FY 2021 and $376 million in FY 2022.
The military branch will select only one contractor for the LRIP phase that covers 26 MPF vehicles for the initial option, 28 units for the second option and eight EMD vehicles for retrofitting work.
The service will award firm-fixed-price contracts for the EMD phase and fixed-price-incentive contracts for the LRIP stage.
The Army will accept responses to the RFP on March 1 and optional bid samples on April 2, according to the notice.
Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) partnered with CMI Defence and ST Kinetics in October to build a combat vehicle prototype they intend to propose for the MPF program’s EMD phase.
Defense News also reported that BAE Systems and General Dynamics’ (NYSE: GD) land systems business are expected to reply to the RFP.
Maj. Gen. David Bassett, program executive officer for ground combat systems, said in a Wednesday statement the Army plans to receive MPF prototypes within 14 months of the contract award and hand over the vehicles to an evaluation group four months after the vehicles are delivered, the report added.
