Army Mobile Protected Firepower Gets New Name, New Delivery Goal.

• Author: Luckenbaugh, Josh

ARLINGTON, Virginia -- The Army's Mobile Protected Firepower is now the M-10 Booker Combat Vehicle, and the first system is scheduled to arrive earlier than expected, service officials said.

The system is an armored, tracked vehicle designed to provide a mobile, protected, direct, offensive fire capability Army Infantry Brigade Combat Teams do not currently have. The vehicle will "bring a new level of lethality to our ground forces," allowing soldiers "to move at a faster pace with greater protection," said Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, during a media roundtable June 8. Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, the program executive officer for ground combat systems, said the system will support Army Infantry Brigade Combat Teams "by suppressing and destroying fortifications, gun systems, entrenchments and secondarily then providing protection against enemy armored vehicles." The M-10 Booker Combat Vehicle gets its name from two servicemembers, Bush said: Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker--who was killed in action in Iraq in 2003 and posthumously awarded a Distinguished Service Cross-and Pvt. Robert Booker--a Medal of Honor recipient who was killed in action during World War II.

"The stories of these two heroic soldiers articulate the Army's exact needs for the M-10 Booker Combat Vehicle," Bush said. Stevon Booker was a tanker and Robert Booker was an infantryman--"so [bringing] both communities together, that was the idea," he said.

The Army awarded General Dynamics Land Systems a $1.14 billion contract for low-rate initial production of the system in June 2022. The vehicle "employs a four-person crew and features an enhanced thermal viewer, a large-caliber cannon, a lightweight hull and turret and a modern diesel engine, transmission and suspension system," a company release said.

Dean said the Army had anticipated receiving the first production vehicle in 19 months from contract award, but now "General Dynamics is working toward a November delivery, so they may yet achieve ahead of schedule."

In its fiscal year 2022 report on the program, the Defense Department's Director, Operational Test and Evaluation said the vehicle's "progress toward achieving operational effectiveness is satisfactory," but noted testing had found the vehicle "had high levels of toxic fumes when firing the main gun, requiring modifications to crew procedures during gunnery to mitigate the build-up of fumes in the turret."

Dean said...