Background The Army recognized the poor performance of the
M551 Sheridan light tank in
Vietnam and began the process of retiring the vehicle in 1977. A small number were retained in active service by the
82nd Airborne Division and the
National Guard. The Army began a series of projects in the 1980s to either improve the Sheridan or replace it. Some of its efforts around this time could be described as hopelessly intermingled. After a series of false starts, in June 1992 the Army selected
FMC's
XM8 Armored Gun System (AGS) to go into low-rate initial production. The AGS was expected to replace the Sheridan in the 3/
73rd Armor of the
82nd Airborne Division and
TOW missile-armed
Humvees in the
2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The Army canceled the AGS in 1996, citing an unfavorable outyear funding environment. The 3/73rd Armor was inactivated over the following two years. The last Sheridans in service were
vismod Sheridans used for
opposing force training. These too were retired in 2004. In 1999,
Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki laid out his vision for a lighter, more transportable force. The Army began the
Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV) program to implement Shinseki's concept.
United Defense LP entered a variant of the AGS to meet the
Mobile Gun System requirement; however the Army selected the
General Dynamics Land Systems 8×8
LAV III derivative.
Design requirements The Army stated in its request for proposals in 2015 that it expected the MPF to operate in concert with the
Army Ground Mobility Vehicle and Light Reconnaissance Vehicle. The Army said the MPF will operate in "austere and unpredictable locations". The Army opted not to add a requirement for an air-drop capability, unlike the M8 Armored Gun System, which had this capability. According to an
Army Futures Command official, as of 2021, one of the two competing team's bids was potentially light enough to airdrop due to its "significantly" lighter weight.
Competition In November 2017, the Army issued a
request for proposal (RFP) for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase and, in order to maximize competition, planned to award up to two Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) contracts for the EMD phase in early 2019. preserved at the
U.S. Army Armor & Cavalry Collection,
Fort Benning c. 2023
Science Applications International Corporation partnered with
ST Kinetics and
CMI Defence. The design paired CMI's Cockerill 305 turret to an ST Kinetics
Next Generation Armored Fighting Vehicle hull.
BAE Systems offered a vehicle based on the
M8 Armored Gun System.
General Dynamics Land Systems offered a variant of the
Griffin II. The GDLS vehicle incorporates components and systems from the British
Ajax IFV (itself based on the Austrian–Spanish
ASCOD). It was publicly unveiled on 22 April 2020. BAE Systems' proposal was a lighter updated version of the M8 Armored Gun System, which was canceled in 1996. In December 2018, the Army narrowed their choices to BAE and GDLS's proposals to move forward. Both companies faced production difficulties and supplier issues related to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The Army had required that the two companies submit all of their 12 prototypes by August 2020. GDLS delivered all of its prototypes (based on the Griffin II) by December 2020. BAE's final prototypes were delivered in February 2021. The assessment phase began in January 2021 at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with testing scheduled to run through June 2021. In March 2022, BAE was reportedly disqualified from the competition due to "noncompliance issues", leaving GDLS as the only remaining option. The Army selected the GDLS Griffin II in June 2022. The initial contract is for 96
Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) vehicles, with first delivery by the end of 2023. == Production and cancellation ==