by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Deliver a nine-man soldier squad under armor into hostile fire, control drones while maneuvering to contact with the enemy and conducting fully unmanned attack missions are merely a few of the anticipated missions to be performed by the Army’s next-generation Bradley replacement Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle infantry carrier.
The first unit equipped, an Army essay explains, will be in 2029 with major production beginning in 2027. Army is preparing to receive 11 prototype OMFVs each from two major defense industry providers, General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetal Vehicles.
“With the initial digital design phase of the program now complete, the Army is redesignating the OMFV program as the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle,” the Army essay writes.
The mission scope for the OMFV will likely be much greater than that of the Bradley, which can of course fire a cannon, use anti-tank missiles and deliver armed infantry for forward dismounted ground attack. The OMFV will do these things, while also likely control air and ground drones and robots, conduct forward surveillance linking air and ground sensors and conducting unmanned assault missions directed by humans operating in a command and control capacity.
OMFV can be adapted is due to the fact that the program has been going through a digital design concept phase, a process which continues to rely heavily upon digital engineering. This technique continues to show great promise across DoD acquisition by virtue of enabling developers to test, assess and refine design and key performance parameters through computer simulations. Precise computer modeling is now consistently able to replicate combat systems and technologies with great precision, a scenario which enables faster adjustments and improvements by removing the need to “bend metal” and actually build prototypes before testing. Multiple design configurations can be analyzed against threats, tested and precisely modeled by computers, allowing the Army to perform a number of operational assessments concurrently.
Intended to operate a communications “node” within an integrated or meshed system of interconnected combat platforms across multiple domains, the Army’s OMFV vehicle will operate as both a sensor and an effector. The concept is for the vehicle to identify targets and possible strike or attack itself, or pass along targeting specifics to another platform or weapons system potentially in better position to attack. This relies upon what is now a massive emphasis for the Pentagon…networking. There are various potential so-called transport layers for communications between nodes, ranging from RF connectivity to GPS or even laser optical data transmission, and much of the specific regarding the Army’s approach to this are likely still to be determined. One strong possibility for the OMFV is the potential use of a force-tracking, GPS-reliant networking system called Joint Battle Command Platform (JBC-P).
Now used in ground vehicles, armored combat platforms and even airborne helicopters, JBC-P relies upon icons and moving map displays to show friendly and enemy force locations, movements and terrain conditions. JBC-P even operates with a built-in intelligence system called TIGR, or Tactical Ground Reporting System, which catalogues details from prior incidents and specific locations to offer relevant background and intelligence information to combat forces in transit. JBC-P can also help enable air-to-ground networking, something of fast-growing emphasis for the Army as it seeks to network armored ground vehicles with ground robots, aerial drones, tactical vehicles and command and control centers. The Army is now heavily focused on robotics and manned-unmanned teaming, as the OMFV is itself being built for unmanned operations as well as an ability to perform command and control functions for air and ground robots. Textron Systems, which is a large contributor to the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle program, is contributing heavily to the OMFV effort in this respect as a builder and integrator of robots. The concept is to link mini-drones to helicopters to fixed wing aircraft and ultimately armored ground combat vehicles
Expedited, AI-enabled air-ground connectivity, something the Army has made great progress developing over the last several years through the Army’s Project Convergence, a “campaign of learning” warfare preparation exercise placing next-generation networking technologies in combat-like circumstances to achieve “high-speed” warfare. Using advanced computers, the Army can now massively decrease sensor to shooter time in combat scenarios, something in which the OMFV will likely figure prominently. This happens by virtue of linking satellites, drones, helicopters and armored ground combat vehicles to an AI-capable computer system able to help optimize methods of attack in milliseconds. Drawing upon a vast database or catalogue of prior events, weapons ranges and effects, terrain and weather conditions and a host of additional interwoven variables, an AI capable system called Firestorm is able to gather, organize, process and perform analytics on otherwise dispersed or disaggregated pools of incoming sensor data.
OMFV can be adapted is due to the fact that the program has been going through a digital design concept phase, a process which continues to rely heavily upon digital engineering. This technique continues to show great promise across DoD acquisition by virtue of enabling developers to test, assess and refine design and key performance parameters through computer simulations. Precise computer modeling is now consistently able to replicate combat systems and technologies with great precision, a scenario which enables faster adjustments and improvements by removing the need to “bend metal” and actually build prototypes before testing. Multiple design configurations can be analyzed against threats, tested and precisely modeled by computers, allowing the Army to perform a number of operational assessments concurrently.
OMFV for Air Defense & Counter Drone
Additional air-ground connectivity may be possible for the OMFV as, developers say, it would be technically feasible to arm the vehicle with some measure of air-defense weaponry such as Stinger missiles. There may not at the moment be a specific requirement for any kind of air-defense component for the OMFV, yet it will be armed with counter-drone weaponry and sensors and is being designed to accommodate a wide range of weapons, including new innovations as they emerge. In essence, there are few limits when it comes to what an open architecture system might be able to accomplish by way of increasing cross-domain connectivity or an expanded weapons envelope.
A drone armed OMFV could also introduce a new sphere of tactical options for the new OMFV as it introduces yet another counter-air and counter-drone technical possibility for land-war commanders.
This progress, already well underway by Army and OMFV developers, is well articulated in an essay called “Deep Learning on Multi Sensor Data for Counter UAV Applications—A Systematic Review,” published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.—essay CLICK HERE
Networked AI systems can, as described by the essay, be “utilized to process a large variety of data originating from many different sources. They are utilized to process a large variety of data originating from many different sources because of their ability to discover high-level and abstract features that typical feature extraction met
hods cannot…. The utilization of deep learning methods in data fusion aspects can be of significant importance in addressing the critical issue of multi-sensory data aggregation.”
Survivability & Robotic Attack
Of course it goes without saying that the “optionally” manned element of OMFV is deliberately intended as a survivability. The OMFV is being engineered around the fast-growing Army priority of manned-unmanned teaming, or even unmanned-unmanned as a way to increase survivability, extend the battlefield and introduce new tactical concepts for command and control.
The concept is clear — enable human soldier decision-makers operating in a command and control capacity to receive organized, fused and integrated combat data in real-time from robots. Unmanned vehicles could carry ammunition, cross bridges into enemy fire, perform forward recon missions to test enemy defenses, coordinate with air attack assets and — when directed by human authorities — destroy enemy targets with mounted weapons. Not only will these kinds of technical steps expand attack options and combat lethality while better protecting soldiers from enemy fire, but they will further disperse or disaggregate advancing forces, bringing additional tactical advantages. The robots could also support dismounted infantry in some cases by traversing rigorous terrain, bringing armored support to advancing ground units.
With the intent of optimizing manned-unmanned teaming possibilities, the robots are engineered with advanced, AI-enabled computer algorithms intended to enable progressively expanding degrees of autonomy. More and more, robotic sensors can perform tasks independent of human intervention such as navigational functions, sensing, networking and data analysis. In a previous interview with Warrior former Maj. Gen. Ross Coffman, Director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team, Army Futures Command, explained that through systems such as aided target recognition, robots can themselves find, identify and acquire targets and perform autonomous obstacle avoidance exercises, but still benefit greatly from humans operating in a command and control capacity. ((Coffman is now Lt. Gen. Ross Coffman, Deputy, Army Futures Command))
“For target acquisition, that’s the payload and then if you talk about autonomous behavior, for the robot itself, like right now we know we can execute waypoint navigation, we can have teleoperation and we can do obstacle avoidance. And we’re really making huge strides on additional autonomous behaviors in the missions they do,” Coffman told Warrior in a previous interview.
Emerging Army armed robots, such as Textron Systems’ Ripsaw RCV-Medium, will massively extend the battlefield, enable more dispersed operations, deliver ammunition, network with air and ground drones, surveil forward high-risk areas and even fire weapons to attack when directed by a human, all variables which are leading the Army to craft newer kinds of concepts for traditional Combined Arms Maneuver warfare.
Unmanned systems and armed robots, increasingly enabled by AI, are expected to greatly change combat maneuver formations by virtue of not only keeping soldiers themselves at safer standoff distances but also expediting the gathering, processing and transmitting of crucial, time sensitive intelligence data in war.
With the intent of optimizing manned-unmanned teaming possibilities, the robots are engineered with advanced, AI-enabled computer algorithms intended to enable progressively expanding degrees of autonomy.
Withstanding Enemy Attack: OMFV Survivability
Alongside offensive weaponry, it comes as no surprise that the OMFV will also likely include Active Protection Systems (APS), an integrated vehicle protection technology with integrates sensors, with computer and fire control to detect an approaching RPG or anti-tank guided missile, track it and then fire off an interceptor to knock it out before it hits. The Army has been testing many different APS systems in recent years, to include IRON FIST, Trophy and another called IRON CURTAIN. Each of these technologies are intended to increase survivability for the vehicle and the crew amid incoming enemy fire, and the exact APS configuration for OMFV is likely yet to be determined.
APS will likely be crucial to the “manned” operational functions of the OMFV as it is being engineered for all kinds of combat, to include massive, great power mechanized force-on-force warfare as well as asymmetrical kinds of counterterrorism or counterinsurgency operations wherein advancing armored forces need to defend against terrorist-fired RPGs. The Army did test APS systems on the Bradley and also performed numerous upgrades over the years to equip the vehicle with an enhanced ability to withstand IED blasts and asymmetrical attacks while in Iraq. This included the addition of blast attenuated seats, a protected ammo compartment called the “hot box,” reactive armor, EW jammers and other kinds of countermeasures. It is likely the OMFV will be configured with a new generation of advanced protections to include APS, IED protections and, perhaps most of all, massive survivability enhancements to support great power warfare against a technologically superior rival.
Much of the specific technical offerings related to survivability are not likely to be available for either security or proprietary reasons, as many of the systems built into or engineered for the new OMFV are competition sensitive. One thing the Army essay does say about the OMFV is that say is that their solution will not surprisingly be built for modular, tailorable technologies and armor, meaning additional protections can be added depending upon the threat equation and requirements for a particular mission.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
