Nikkei.com is reporting that General Dynamics and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are teaming up to work on the Marine Corps Amphibious Combat Vehicle.
The above pics illustrate what I believe is going on here.
Mitsubishi is currently developing a heavy wheeled 8x8 capable of carrying 11 soldiers. Could they be working on an amphibious version of the same vehicle? I don't know but if they're successful...even if the Marine Corps doesn't select it...then Mitsubishi should have a leg up on the obvious Japanese Self Defense Force's need for an ACV of their own.
Sidenote: RPG cage and ERA blocks? That's alot of add on weight to an already large vehicle! A wheeled APC topping 40 tons? Read Army Recognition's info on Mitsubishi's proposed APC here.
Solomon
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that the IFV pictured is for ground operations and is not optimized for amphibious landing operations.
Based on Japanese articles, the project calls for fitting an "EFV like" chassis with Japanese propulsion and electronics. Japanese have a more experience in water jet propulsion than General Dynamics does, so the resulting product will be a cheaper and smaller EFV.
Lowered cost of General Dynamic's ACV proposal due to Japanese orders would in turn enable the USMC to order some for itself.
Take into account all those pesky chinese troops armed with RPG's and that cage with ERA panels seems just about right.
ReplyDeleteSarabvir Singh
DeleteThat APC concept model won't face Chinese troops if realized. It is meant for use by the JGSDF in overseas deployment in Middle East, Africa, and most shockingly of all, North Korea.
And no, the PLA won't use RPGs to deal with Japanese armors, they got far better weapons for that.
they need this , to fight the xenomorphs
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure this is actually what is happening, whatever GD is offering, it's not this vehicle, after-all, the land version (and presumably amphibious version) in the pics is still in development. It seems more like this vehicle is an expansion of the MCV, that was recently produced by MHI, into a family line like Defense-blog claims. (http://defence-blog.com/?p=1641)
ReplyDeleteGD's MPC/ACV1.1 entry has already undergone testing so it can't be a concept vehicle. Furthermore, GD has already stated that their entry is based on the LAV III design and uses the DVH developed for Stryker and Canadian LAV III upgrades. This makes sense because there have been many LAV family vehicles in the past that had the necessary carrying capability, amphibious capability, and now survivability, or some combination of the three that the MPC needs. Varying from that tree for some new design that has to be developed would not make any sense.
Whatever the case is, something will come out of this program, it has to; even if it is, as has been suggested by others here, only a revamped version of the FB Stryker hulls. (I'm sure GD is ready to pitch this but V-hulls for mine protection have to be a priority so i'm still a little skeptical of this in actuality).
Given the budget, I just don't see how the JLTV makes it unless they are subsidized to the point of literally being free. Hopefully, money can go towards this program. Then again, weren't there some rumblings a few months ago about GD getting a contract to continue looking into the feasibility of a stripped down EFV? Maybe everyone will be surprised and they will go with that and forget this MPC/ACV Phase 1,2,3 craziness. Normally, this run around would be a little entertaining, but given how badly the USMC needs new amphibious vehicles, this is not funny at all.
The way I see it, one possible way of cooperation between GD and Mitsubishi can be to use GD's global sales and maintenance experience. Mitsubishi will be a new entrant to the global arms trade if and when they do export their very first product. The kind of customer research that GD has done can only imporve any Mitsubishi bid and as a customer, you know that GD is a premium name.
DeleteThen they can roll out the products for the Japanese and Export markets. Seeing that defence companies are always consolidating, GD might go to acquire Mitsubishi ground defence in the long term like General Dynamics Land Systems Europe.