Scott Nicholas
U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Bragg commenced simulations on a Ricardo-developed lightweight infantry vehicle concept designed to address gaps in the country’s light infantry, airborne and air assault operations.
Ricardo said Thursday its defense systems business designed a concept for the Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle in a push to help the service branch deliver added firepower in cities, the jungle and other restrictive locations.
The company secured a contract from the Army’s Tank Automotive Research and Development Command for the development of one out of three competing designs for the future MPF vehicle.
Chet Gryczan, Ricardo Defense Systems president, noted that the company has previous design, engineering and development experience on commercial and military vehicles and said the simulation-based scenario test on the MPF concept generated “encouraging” results.
The service branch plans to purchase three battalions of MPF at 40 vehicles per battalion for active service, Ricardo added.
