The US Army has awarded two Section 804 middle tier acquisition rapid prototyping contracts for the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) programme against an aggressive delivery schedule. 

General Dynamic Land Systems and BAE Systems Land & Armaments were both awarded contracts on 17 December under the full and open, best value competition for integration of mature technologies. Each of the rapid prototyping contract does not exceed $376 million.

‘Currently, the [MPF] capabilities do not exist in our light formations,' offered US Army Brig Gen Ross Coffman, director of the US Army’s Next Generation Combat Vehicles (NGCV) Cross Functional Team (CFT), under which the MPF programme falls.

‘Requirements associated with this will enable US forces to disrupt, breach and breakthrough [enemy] security zones and defensive belts to allow our infantry, men and women, to close with and destroy the enemy on the objective’. 

Each of the two contractors will begin delivering 12 prototype vehicles 14 months from ...