The Army is getting both a new helicopter and a new tank, the first in 40 years in both cases. The Bell V-280 has been selected to replace some 2,000 Black Hawk helicopters while the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) tank has been selected for integration into the force and is already under construction.
The first MPF is set to be delivered to the Army in 2023, with an expectation that $17 billion will be spent on the tank, and its production process overall. Lighter and more agile than its heavier cousin, the Abrams main battle tank, the MPF is designed to complement Infantry brigades as they advance on the enemy.
The Army currently fields Strykers and Bradley fighting vehicles but the MPF will bring firepower to the infantry in a way that previous platforms do not. The MPF can serve as an immediate support by fire system for infantrymen on the ground, blowing up bunkers and hard sites that the enemy has fortified, and enable an American advance.
With its lighter weight, it is also much easier for the tank to be moved via aircraft as opposed to the aforementioned Abrams tank. Speaking of which, the interior of the tank is designed to mimic that of an Abrams albeit on a smaller scale.
Purchasing the MPF continues to reveal the Army's conception of what the future of warfare will consist of. The Infantry has also selected a new Squad Vehicle recently, one that will help infantrymen zip across uneven terrain. Bemoaned by many fighting the last war as being devoid of armor, the new Infantry Squad Vehicle, MPF, V-280, IVASS blended reality headsets, and other recent tech procurements tell us that the Army anticipates the next war being highly mobile, information-intensive, and likely high resource draining.
These projected future conflicts will not resemble counter-insurgencies in the Middle East, and recent events in Ukraine have laid bare the reality that the Russian military is no match for modern western forces. All of this alludes to the U.S. military preparing for a future war in the Pacific against the People's Republic of China.
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