The Raytheon Company and Rheinmetall Defence have added a new player to the Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle team. Detroit-based Pratt & Miller Defense will provide engineering analysis support and join Raytheon and Rheinmetall in pitching the tracked Lynx KF41 armored vehicle to the U.S. Army through the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) competition.

Pratt & Miller’s main role will be ensuring that the Lynx meets or exceeds the Army's survivability requirements for the OMFV, which is scheduled to begin replacing the M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle in 2026. The OMFV competition requires that the vehicle be optimized for dense urban areas while maintaining efficacy against threats in open, rural areas.

“Pratt & Miller brings extraordinary engineering experience and expertise to the team to make sure Lynx can withstand the battlefield's harsh conditions,” said Brad Barnard, Raytheon OMFV director. “Our troops deserve the safest and most advanced combat vehicle possible, and that's exactly what we will deliver.”

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In 2018, Raytheon and Rheinmetall joined forces to offer Lynx for the Army's OMFV competition. Lynx is a next generation, tracked armored fighting vehicle designed to address the critical challenges of the future battlefield. The team is providing an overmatch advantage for soldiers, growth capacity to support new technologies over the vehicle's lifetime, and lower life-cycle costs. Lynx will be manufactured in the U.S.

Image courtesy: Rheinmetall Defence

“Raytheon and Rheinmetall are assembling a U.S. supply chain for Lynx,” says Matt Warnick, American Rheinmetall Vehicles managing director. “Partnering with Pratt & Miller brings us one step closer to building Lynx in the USA.”

Raytheon technology earmarked for the Lynx includes the company's advanced weapons, Active Protection System, next-generation thermal sights, the Coyote unmanned aircraft system. The Lynx’s 35-millimeter main gun meets the threshold requirement for the OMFV program, which also requires at least a second-generation forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system.

“Pratt & Miller is proud to join the Lynx team and support the survivability analysis, ensuring the best technologies for unparalleled protection for our warfighters,” says Celyn Evans, Pratt & Miller Defense director.

The OMFV falls under the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) Cross-Functional Team (CFT) – a new four-star Army Futures Command tasked with the second highest priority modernization program in for the U.S. Army behind the Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) surface-to-surface missile program.

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William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at william.kucinski@sae.org.