The US Army is accelerating its new Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) programme and hopes to have prototypes for testing by the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY 2022-23)timeframe, according to Brigadier General David Lesperance, deputy commanding general of the army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence.
The NGCV is to include an armed Robotic Combat Vehicle that could be tele-operated, semi-autonomous, or autonomous and a Manned Fighting Vehicle that could be optionally manned and teamed with the Robotic Combat Vehicle. Both platforms would be optimised for dense urban terrain.
Brig Gen Lesperance, who is leading the army’s new ‘Cross-Functional Team’ for the NGCV, declined to classify the vehicle as a new main battle tank or infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) or other traditional platform, and suggested its attributes would be left relatively vague in order to spur designers to create “revolutionary” concepts.