General Dynamics Unveils Griffin II Light Tank

24 September 2019

38 tonnes Griffin II light tank (photo :Jimkir)

At the 2019 Modern Day Marine annual exhibition and conference held in Quantico, Virginia from September 17 to 19, 2019, General Dynamics Corporation first introduced the Griffin II model of its light tank, which was previously selected by the US Army as one of two final applicants for the development on a competitive basis of tracked combat vehicles with cannon weapons under the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program.

Recall that in December 2018, the U.S. Army issuedBAE Systems and General Dynamics have a competitive contract for the development of tracked combat vehicles under the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program, which provides for the creation of a kind of new "light tank" with cannon weapons for the US Army. BAE Systems and General Dynamics received US $ 375.9 and 335 million contracts from the US Army, respectively, each for the construction and delivery for testing of 12 prototypes of its own version of the MPF machine at the R&D stage (Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development - EMD). The supply of prototypes should be started after 14 months and completed after 18-19 months from the date of receipt of the contract. According to the results of comparative tests of the presented prototypes, the US Army should make the final choice of a machine for serial production by the end of fiscal year 2021 and in 2022 fin. to issue an order to the selected contractor for the first pre-production batch of 26 cars with an option for the second pre-production batch of 28 cars. Full-scale serial production is expected from 2025 fin. of the year.

The current plans of the US Army provide for the purchase of 504 serial MPF machines. First of all, these vehicles should go to equip the companies planned for the formation of individual companies (staffing the company is 14 vehicles) in infantry brigades (Infantry Brigade Combat teams - IBCT). The introduction of such a company into each of the 33 infantry brigades of the regular army and the National Guard is supposed, the first such company should achieve combat readiness in 2025 fin. year.

Modular turret of Griffin II (image : Jimkir)

The Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program, launched by the US Army in 2015, provides for the creation of a tracked combat vehicle weighing no more than 32 tons at first (according to the latest data, the mass limit has been increased to 38 tons - although it may mean “short” tons), equipped with cannon weapons of 105 or 120 mm caliber and active defense complex. By design, MPF vehicles will have a higher level of operational and tactical mobility than Abrams tanks.

BAE Systems offers under this program the reincarnation of the famous M8 Armored Gun Systems (AGS) Buford, developed by FMC (then United Defense, now part of BAE Systems) at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s to replace the M551 Sheridan light tank, primarily in the airborne formations. In 1995, the M8 tank was adopted by the U.S. Army, but in 1997 the M8 program was canceled before the start of mass production due to reduced military spending. Only six M8 models were built. The light tank M8 has a combat weight of 19 to 25 tons, depending on the version of the interchangeable protection kit and is equipped with a 105 mm M35 cannon with automatic loader.

At the same time, General Dynamics is proposing under the MPF program the Griffin II machine of a completely new development, the appearance of which has not been made public until recently. It is known that Griffin II was developed on the basis of the Griffin I prototype demonstrator shown several years ago, which was the installation of a modified lightweight turret of the M1A2SEPv2 Abrams tank with the new 120 mm XM360 gun on the ASCOD 2 chassis, used in the new British Ajax tracked combat reconnaissance vehicle (developers and manufacturers of ASCOD 2 are European-owned General Dynamics-owned European companies - Spanish General Dynamics European Land Systems Santa Bárbara Sistemas and Austrian General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr). The total mass of the turret in Griffin I was reduced from 22 tons (for the M1A2SEPv.2 tank) to supposedly only 8 tons,

At the same time, according to a number of publications, the combat weight of the new Griffin II reaches exactly the indicated maximum limits for MPF of 38 tons. You can see that on the presented Griffin II model the tower again returned to almost “normal” sizes for the main tank - including through the installation of very impressive modular reservation blocks.

(BMPD)