The UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation on 27 January issued revised key user requirements for the Mobile Fires Platform (MFP) programme to replace the British Army’s AS90 self-propelled howitzer following an initial request for information (RFI) in April 2019.
The deadline for responses to the revised requirements, published on the DE&S MFP Early Engagement Portal, is 17 February. The requirements document will lead to a command acquisition support plan between DE&S and the British Army, which will formally agree the outputs that DE&S will deliver.
It gives an in-depth explanation of what the British Army has defined as the prime performance indicators for the UK’s future self-propelled artillery system.
The threshold and objective requirements have been revised from the original RFI and include a minimum range with unassisted ammunition of 30 km and an objective range of 40 km in all climatic conditions.
The system will also be required to conduct multiple-round simultaneous impact fire missions and relocate within 4.5 minutes of the first firing, including two minutes for the fire mission and the time taken for the system to move at least 550 m away from the firing point.
The new system will be required to support the UK’s Strike brigades, as well as their Boxer and Ajax armoured fighting vehicles. This means they must be able to travel up to 520 km in 24 hours, including 200 km on unbounded roads and 30 km off road without assistance. All MFP platforms are also required to be operational at the end of an operational march.
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