The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program: Background and Issues for Congress

Abstract

In April 2009, then-Secretary of Defense Gates announced he intended to significantly restructure the Army's Future Combat System (FCS) program. The FCS was a multiyear, multibillion dollar program that had been underway since 2000 and was at the heart of the Army's transformation efforts. In lieu of the cancelled FCS manned ground vehicle (MGV), the Army was directed to develop a ground combat vehicle (GCV) that would be relevant across the entire spectrum of Army operations and would incorporate combat lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army reissued a request for proposal (RFP) for the GCV on November 30, 2010 and planned to begin fielding the GCV by 2015-2017. On August 17, 2011, the GCV program was approved to enter the Technology Development Phase of the acquisition process and a day later, the Army awarded two technology development contracts: $439.7 million to the General Dynamics-led team and a second contract for $449.9 million to the BAE Systems-Northrop Grumman team. The technology development phase is expected to last 24 months. On August 23, 2011, the third team vying for the GCV technology development (TD) contract, SAIC-Boeing, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) contending that there were errors in the evaluation process. On December 5, 2011, GAO denied the SAIC-Boeing GCV protest stating that the Army's award of only two TD contracts was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation. On December 6, 2011, the Army lifted the stop-work order that had been placed on the General Dynamics and BAE Systems-Northrop Grumman teams so that work could resume on the GCV. Reports noted that the SAIC-Boeing protest was denied because of Army concerns with crew protection, most notably the vehicle's proposed active protection system and underside vulnerability to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In May 2012, the Army reportedly plans to test a number of foreign candidates during a Network Integration Exercise.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA559409

Entities

People

  • Andrew Feickert

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Armored Personnel Carriers
  • Combat Vehicles
  • Contracts
  • Cost Estimates
  • Department Of Defense
  • Explosive Devices
  • Governments
  • Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Infantry Fighting Vehicles
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Acquisition
  • Military Equipment
  • Self Propelled Guns
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.