Anduril to join Rheinmetall OMFV bid

Anduril Industries will provide command-and-control software for American Rheinmetall Vehicles' bid to build the Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, the companies announced Tuesday.

Anduril’s software will provide formation maneuver and threat detection as well as targeting capabilities for the joint bid for the OMFV, dubbed “Team Lynx,” which in addition to Rheinmetall includes Textron, Raytheon Technologies, L3Harris and Allison Transmission.

The OMFV is one of the Army’s top modernization priorities and would replace the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Anduril’s software will “significantly reduce the cognitive burden of the OMFV’s two soldier crew and provide them with next-generation tactical awareness, C2, and decisive lethality to dominate future battlefields,” Anduril head of strategy Zach Mears said in the announcement.

Anduril uses a common artificial intelligence-based operating system known as Lattice OS in its products.

“The partnership with Anduril brings to Team Lynx’s next-generation OMFV solution exceptional, additional innovations in software development, command and control, sensor integration and counter [unmanned aerial system] systems, further enabling the Lynx OMFV to provide operators capabilities not available anywhere else in the world,” said Matt Warnick, managing director at American Rheinmetall Vehicles.

The Army last year selected Rheinmetall and four other bids for the concept design phase of the program. Bids are due Nov. 1 for the full and open competition, through which the Army will choose up to three companies to participate in phases three and four of the program: detailed design and prototype manufacturing.

American Rheinmetall Vehicles, a subsidiary of Germany-based Rheinmetall, is increasing its footprint in the United States, and had 75 employees in its Sterling Heights, MI, office, as of late last year, Warnick told Inside Defense in November.

The OMFV isn’t the only upcoming Army ground vehicle program that Rheinmetall is interested in: The company is partnering with GM Defense in a bid to provide the Army’s Common Tactical Truck.