American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics to compete for a potential $45 billion contract to develop and manufacture the XM30 combat vehicle to replace the Bradley

The U.S. Army has decided to replace the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, which have been in service for more than four

Two companies will compete for the right to create an heir: American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics.

What is known

The American army this week officiallyannounced the transition to a new stage of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program. Initially, five companies took part in the project. In addition to American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense and Point Blank Enterprises received contracts five years ago.

The potential cost of the program is $45billion. The next stage of the competition involves the allocation of $ 1.6 billion to American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics. At this stage, they must offer a prototype of a promising infantry fighting vehicle for testing, which is called the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle.

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American Rheinmetall wants to use combatLynx KF-41 infantry vehicle (pictured above). To create it, the company joined forces with Raytheon and L3Harris. It is equipped with a 50mm cannon, thermal sights and can launch drones.

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General Dynamics offers Griffin III (pictured)higher). It is based on the chassis of the Ajax reconnaissance vehicle with a 50mm cannon. The combat vehicle can launch Switchblade drones. To do this, General Dynamics is partnering with AeroVironment.