Future Armour

[ueo]

There is, the problem is no one can afford it.

BEG - BEST EDUCATED GUESS

or SWAG (silly wild assed guess)

 

[KevinB]

Pretty neat I would be curious to see how they do in an exercise.

I suspect that a lot of these sorts of tests are being done to see what can be done to make the XM-30 MICV a “battle ready” vehicle from the get go.

The M2A4 Bradley is pretty much EOL for the line.
It already got a larger power pack Cummins V903 ET675 and new transmission, 675hp up 75 from the A3, and up 175 from the early Brads.
It has 3x the available electrical power from the A3, as well as increased cooling capacity (engine, transmission, and electronic device) allowing it to power networked communications, EW Systems, APS, and other power consumers.
Additionally it has had a significant amount of suspension upgrades - to return the off route mobility that the early ones had while allowing all the additional armor that has been added.
The proposed Hellfire swap to the TOW was not initiated - so while some Bradley can control NLOS ATGMS - no effort was made to integrate F&F and/or NLOS capabilities itself.

IFV’s have often been used to carry additional mobility tools - so it doesn’t seem to be too far fetched for various AFV systems to carry UGVs. for various purposes.
Several years ago, UGV’s similar to the above where demonstrated self dismounting off of HEMMT PALS beds -- those were primarily designed as logistical support “mules” --
It seems very very clear to me that pretty much no one wants to get out of their AFV during contact - and unhook UGV’s, so the ability of UGV’s to self deploy under fire has been a key ask.

The question is going to be how to effectively store them on the vehicle - in a manner that they do not get damaged, damage the host vehicle, but also remain quickly deployable.
As well will be be designed to be recovered or self recover onto the host vehicle.

Also the image in the TWZ article shows the FireAnts in a storage/transport mode on the Bradley -- none are equipped with a weapons package.
So still in the crawl portion of the design integration.