The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Oshkosh-Hanwha, Rheinmetall Vehicles, and Point Blank Enterprises, contracts for the concept development phase of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program.
The total award value for all five contracts is approximately $299.4 million.
Oshkosh will work with leading South Korean defense company Hanwha as a partner, according to previous coverage, and the Rheinmetall team also includes Raytheon Technologies, Textron and L3Harris Technologies.
Miami-based Point Blank is the only nontraditional company or small business to win a contract. Mettle Ops, a small family-owned, Michigan-based company, had also submitted a bid to design an OMFV concept, and Roush Defense is also believed to have bid.
Roughly a year and a half ago, the Army, in its first attempt to hold a competition to replace Bradley, received just one physical bid sample from GDLS by its set deadline in October 2019. Defense News broke the news that the only other entry — the Lynx 41 from a Rheinmetall and Raytheon team — was disqualified because it wasn’t delivered on time to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.