The US Army is moving ahead with plans to outfit a second Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) with Double V-Hull A1 Stryker (DVHA1) vehicles with 30 mm cannons, and has awarded Oshkosh Defense with an additional USD99 million for the effort.
The company announced the order on 10 August and said the figure will cover the modification of 83 vehicles under the army's “Medium Caliber Weapon System” (MCWS) programme, bringing the total number of vehicles under contract up to 174.
Under the initiative, the service is providing the Oshkosh-led team with the vehicles and Northrop Grumman's XM813 Bushmaster Chain Gun. The team then provides a turret – one ‘based' on Rafael's Samson family of turrets but ‘customised' for the army – and integrates it onto the vehicle along with the cannon.
“The lightweight Oshkosh MCWS includes a dual-feed ammunition handling system with hidden reload and a flexible architecture to accommodate future technology growth,” a company spokesperson told Janes on 18 June. “These features will allow the MCWS to achieve increased lethality and maintain mobility without any significant change to the logistics, maintenance, or operation of the Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle.”
Army leaders have plans to outfit three brigades with 83 MCWSs each. When the service announced in June that the company had won the contract, it placed an initial order valued at USD130 million for 91 vehicles but said the deal could be worth up to USD942 million over six years if it decided to provide six SBCTs with the upgunned capability.
If all goes as planned, the service will receive its first production vehicle around May 2022, and achieve its first unit equipped date around December 2023.
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