Land Force: Project Land 400 awaiting the next step (Part 1) | ADM Mar 2011
Gregor Ferguson | Sydney
While there are so many good vehicles to choose from, the platform element of Land 400 is in many ways the least important. Choosing a contracting methodology and then a prime systems integrator who can tackle the integration risks and in-service support efficiently and economically may be the real challenge.
One of the interesting features of the December 2010 update to the Defence Capability Plan (DCP) was the separation of Land 400 – Combined Arms Fighting System into two discrete but related sub-phases. By the time this was published it had already been overtaken by evolution in the project development strategy.
Land 400 Phase 2 seeks to replace the vehicles currently providing a cavalry capability – that is, mounted and dismounted surveillance and reconnaissance – as well as the Light Armoured Fighting Vehicles (LAFV) providing the Army’s infantry combat capabilities and the associated combat support and combat service support. In the DCP update IOC for the former was scheduled for 2020-22, and IOC for this phase is for the latter 2023-26.
However, a Defence source told ADM “since the mid-2010 submission of the Land 400 entry for the DCP Update, the project development strategy has evolved. Intent is for Land 400 to progress Phase 2 as a single 1st Pass phase for consideration by Government. There will then most likely be multiple 2nd Pass considerations that are developed along capability lines.
“This intent was outlined at the 2010 Land Warfare Conference by Brigadier Nagy Sorial, Director General Combat Arms Fighting System (DGCAFS) and Program Manager Land 400 (PMLAND 400), who leads the newly established integrated project team. This team will progress Land 400 through to capability realisation. The merging of the program into a single phase indicates the broad, and highly integrated, nature of Land 400 and emphasises that the program is more than just a vehicle replacement project.”
The project got under way back in May 2010 with an RFI which closed in August. Most of the respondents had been debriefed by the time of the Land Warfare Conference in November, and industry is now waiting for the DMO’s Integrated Project Team (IPT) to define its Equipment Acquisition Strategy (EAS), something which in turn will be based on its Concept of Operations (conops).
While the project plan enables a graduated introduction of new capability, the potential overlap between the existing capabilities is significant and quite obvious. Some 350 M113A3s fill both roles at present and, subject to any firm specifications for mobility, firepower, protection and vehicle weight, it would be impossible at this stage to rule out the acquisition of a single vehicle (or vehicle family) to fill all of these roles.
The M113 is tracked and the other vehicles which currently provide the capabilities Land 400 will replace are both wheeled: the Army’s 270 ASLAVs and 700 Bushmasters, in all their variants. It’s highly likely that the Land 400 conops will call for higher levels of protection and firepower than they currently provide (at least in some roles); this in turn may dictate the choice of a tracked vehicle to satisfy some combat requirements while a lighter wheeled vehicle may be a better choice for the Cavalry requirements.
Without wanting to appear dismissive, however, at this early stage the vehicles themselves are probably the least important part of the project. To meet the project’s schedule, it’s highly likely that they will be based on a MOTS design, either imported directly or assembled in Australia.
The DMO’s risk appetite probably won’t extend to significant ‘Australianisation’ of the platforms themselves, still less to a potentially risky indigenous design and build program – though this remains to be proven: Thales Australia, which has the strongest indigenous armoured vehicle design capability, is waiting for source selections in Land 121 Phases 3 and 4 to show which way the wind is blowing in Canberra before revealing its plans for Land 400.
The project aims to replace over 1,300 vehicles of one kind or another, though not on a one for one basis. Depending on the type and mix of vehicles concerned, a program of around 1,000 vehicles will be significant by global standards and could be sufficient to justify investing in local assembly and support, especially if the fruits of DMTC and other local research into armoured steel enhancements and automated hull manufacture can be applied economically.
Importantly, the fielded vehicles will integrate mounted and dismounted digitised systems as well as micro UAVs and UGVs to support tactical fire and movement. This is where the major project risk emerges: whatever vehicle solution is chosen it must interface with the ADF’s wider NCW architecture. The complexity in such a project derives from the multiple interfaces with projects and sub-phases such as JP2072, Land 200, JP129 Ph.4 and, to greater or lesser extents, Land 53 Ninox, Land 75 BCSS and others – well over a dozen in all.
John Harriott, business development manager for General Dynamics Land Systems Australia reflected the opinion of most observers when he told ADM that Land 400 is about delivering an integrated combat capability of which the vehicles are but one component: this is much more then a vehicle replacement project, he emphasised.
“For programs as potentially complex as Land 400, OEMs who develop platforms, project manage (as primes) and are able to integrate the next generation vetronic systems would provide the lowest risk solution to the Commonwealth,” BAE Systems land and integrated systems director Kim Scott told ADM. “In order to succeed with Land 400, the PSI and original OEMs must think at a systems level rather than in the traditional way of thinking the platform and systems are separate.”
Their views are echoed by Rheinmetall vehicle systems whose managing director Mike Riley predicts the platform element will be largely MOTS and the major challenge for the DMO will be to reduce commercial and integration risk.
Between them, these three companies can offer more than a dozen different wheeled and tracked vehicles in whatever permutation customer requirements dictate, though only GD has vehicles already in Australian service – the ASLAV and Abrams, with logistics infrastructure to support them. But there are several other credible contenders, including Finnish company Patria, offering its Armoured Modular Vehicle (AMV) wheeled armoured vehicle; Lockheed Martin; Boeing; Singapore Technologies Kinetics, whose Warthog APC is now serving with the British army in Afghanistan; Thales Australia; and French military vehicle specialist Nexter.
Defence’s view of its platform options will likely be shaped by concurrent programs overseas. These will highlight risks as well as platform and technology opportunities and could provide a mechanism for a relatively low-risk collaborative development program with a major ally.
Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program
In the US the cancellation of the manned ground vehicle component of the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS) has given rise to a new program, the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). The RFPs for this program closed on 21 January and a Milestone A decision is due next month, at which point the Army expects to award 24-month Technology Development (TD) contracts to three shortlisted contenders.
The GCV program aims to field a wheeled or tracked vehicle relatively quickly, one that is capable of carrying an entire infantry section with sufficient protection for an IED-rich environment. The vehicle must also be capable of full-spectrum operations, from major war-fighting to peace-keeping and peace enforcement. And it must be affordable – US$9-10.5 million each.
The US Army has said it plans initially to acquire 1,874 GCVs with the first production variants rolling off the line in early-mid 2018 and IOC the following year.
Coincidentally, or not, this roughly matches Defence’s schedule for Land 400 Ph.2A: the winning GCV design will be selected in 2013 and the manufacturer will receive a 48-month Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract leading to Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) in 2017 and then Full-Rate Production (FRP) in 2020. Prototype testing will begin in 2014 with concurrent programs of risk reduction and survivability testing followed by Production Qualification Testing (PQT) through 2017.
The three contenders for the GCV program are expected to compete also for Land 400. Boeing and SAIC have teamed up with German firms Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall. This team will offer the tracked Puma AIFV which is currently being developed for the German Army by a KMW-Rheinmetall joint venture, PSM. The German Army has ordered 405 Pumas with two production vehicles currently undergoing verification and validation testing and production deliveries due to start in 2013.
The Puma can carry a three-man crew with nine troops; it has a 40mm gun and high levels of protection with modular armour available to increase protection levels, up to a maximum vehicle weight of around 50 tonnes.
BAE Systems is also a contender, teamed with Northrop Grumman, German firm MTU, QinetiQ North America, battery manufacturer SAFT and iRobot Corporation. Their offering is a hybrid-drive platform based on QinetiQ’s proprietary, UK-developed E-X-Drive system and the team says it is the first combat vehicle designed from the ground up for the current IED threat environment. The hub-mounted electric drive system affords considerable flexibility in the design and layout of the vehicle and its armour.
The third contender is GD leading a team consisting of Lockheed Martin (responsible for the turret) and Raytheon; GD hasn’t released much data about its bid. For Land 400, however, GD can offer a package drawn from its ASCOD, Stryker, LAV-3 and Piranha V product lines. Importantly it also has proven, organic NCW and systems integration smarts, and hasn’t discounted a major upgrade to the Army’s legacy fleet which would provide a very cost-effective capability upgrade without the disruption and massive capital investment of a total platform replacement.
Future Rapid Effects System (FRES)
The UK’s £16 billion Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) program aims to replace the British Army’s Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance –Tracked (CVRT – essentially the Scimitar light tank and variants), FV 432 family of tracked APCs and ageing Saxon wheeled protected mobility vehicles with a new family of around 3,000 AFVs. This much-delayed program has been shambolic, with GD’s wheeled Piranha V selected for the Utility component, and then de-selected for budgetary reasons.
Later GD defeated BAE Systems (offering the CV90) in the £500 million FRES SV (Specialist Vehicle) contest to develop a tracked platform for recce, engineering and ambulance variants; based on the ASCOD SV (designed by GD’s Spanish subsidiary Santa Barbara Sistemas) this will be built in Wales. The ASCOD is already in production for Austria and Spain.
However, the CV90 is one of 11 separate vehicles from a global military vehicles portfolio ranging across the UK, Sweden, US and South Africa out of which BAE Systems can put together a package for Land 400.
The UK MoD was also originally a partner with Germany in the Boxer wheeled AIFV program, but withdrew in 2003. Paradoxically, it then shortlisted the Boxer, GD’s Piranha V and Nexter’s VBCI for the utility phase of the FRES program. Although the Piranha V won this battle, the VBCI and Boxer are also contenders for Land 400. The latter is manufactured by another KMW-Rheinmetall MAN joint venture called ARTEC; to simplify things for Land 400 the Boxer and Puma are both represented in Canberra by Rheinmetall as either a prime or system supplier; the patent company also provides fire control and simulation systems for all the major players, and even weapons in many cases.
Other contenders for Land 400 include Finnish company Patria whose family of wheeled Armoured Modular Vehicles (AMV) is now in service with the Finnish, Polish and Slovenian Armies; the latter two operators have already deployed it to Afghanistan. The AMV is a contender for the US Marine Corps’ Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC) program, an adjunct to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, and the company has teamed with Lockheed Martin to bid for this program. However, Patria and Lockheed haven’t decided (or at least haven’t announced) how they’ll tackle Land 400 so it’s not clear they will mount a joint bid in Australia.
A senior Patria source told ADM last month the AMV’s modular design supports several configurations and a range of light, medium and heavy turreted weapons. One of the most important aspects of Land 400, however, is networking, vetronics and C2. Patria is Finland’s leading systems house and offers its own vehicle platform related Vetronics/electronics as well as third party systems, based on customer requirements.
The same applies to Nexter’s wheeled VBCI. This is now in full production for the French Army, which has ordered 771 vehicles. The Infantry Combat Vehicle (ICV) variant is designed to accommodate the French Army’s System d’Information Terminal (SIT), a component of the FELIN soldier combat system, while the Command Post Vehicle (VPC) variant is fitted with the higher-level System d’Information Regimentaire (SIR), developed by EADS Cassidian; these equate roughly to the Australian Army’s tactical BCSS and BMS systems acquired under Land 200. The vehicle also provides an interface to the FELIN system.
The VBCI is highly mobile and therefore has been selected as the command post vehicle for the French Army’s LeClerc tank regiments, rather than using a tracked APC as other armies frequently do. Land 400 is as much an opportunity for systems houses SAFRAN and Cassidian as it is for Nexter.
Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK) is a dark horse in this race. Its credentials are burnished by the 2008 British Army order for over 100 Bronco All-Terrain Tracked Carriers (ATTC), dubbed Warthog in UK service. While this isn’t a contender for Land 400 it provides credibility for the company’s Terrex 8x8 Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV), designed and developed with Irish armoured vehicle specialist Timoney, and also built in Turkey by local firm Otokar as the Yavuz.
The Terrex can carry up to 13 troops (including the driver) and the family includes both command and Recce, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA) variants, and STK can draw upon NCW integration capabilities from across the Singapore Technologies group.
Finally, Force Protection has confirmed it is keeping an eye on Land 400. If it wins Land 121 Ph.4 it will have a significant local footprint, though no systems house to partner with, so could be another dark horse.