SAIC Teams Up With ST Kinetics, CMI For US Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower Program

Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) has teamed up with ST Kinetics and CMI Defence to develop combat vehicle prototypes for the U.S. Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program.

Based on ST Kinetics’ Next Generation Armored Fighting Vehicle (NGAFV) chassis and CMI Defence’s Cockerill Series 3105 turret currently in production, SAIC will compete for an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract to build prototypes that incorporate a lightweight combat vehicle design while still providing mobility and lethality for Army units. Such a vehicle will enable freedom of movement and action, specifically for restrictive, urban operations but tailorable for full-spectrum combat environments.

“As a systems integrator, SAIC can deliver an alternative option to the Army that brings together best-of-breed, non-developmental components to field a new combat vehicle quickly that meets critical requirements,” said Jim Scanlon, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Customer Group. “Rapid delivery of this MPF solution is essential to the Army and our solution is extremely well-positioned to meet these requirements and deliver a modernized vehicle to soldiers.”

“ST Kinetics is indeed honored to team up with SAIC again to participate in another major defense program in the U.S. Our NGAFV is an advanced system that is fully digitalized, highly mobile and developed to support networked knowledge-based warfighting. A fleet of seven prototypes had been developed and robustly tested over several years. As the NGAFV will be in production soon, this platform brings minimal technical risk and a robust supply chain to the MPF program,” said Dr. Lee Shiang Long, president of ST Kinetics.

President of CMI Defence Jean-Luc Maurange added, “We are extremely proud to participate in the MPF program with SAIC, especially as this is the 200th anniversary of our company’s founding. Our highly innovative turret and gun solution is already qualified and in production, which translates into a high level of manufacturing readiness, low technical risk and ensures our ability to meet the compressed program schedule required by the U.S. Army”.

SAIC’s entry into the MPF competition builds on continued momentum in combat vehicle modernization, to include the company’s recent collaboration with the Detroit Automotive Technologies Consortium (DATC) and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) to assist in the development of the next-generation combat vehicle - experimental prototype (NGCV-EP).