Oshkosh, Hanwha team up for OMFV bid

By Ethan Sterenfeld / April 19, 2021 at 12:34 PM

Oshkosh Defense has joined with Hanwha Defense, a Korean defense company, to submit a bid for the concept design phase of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, the Army's replacement for the Bradley fighting vehicle.

"We have built a consortium of experienced and innovative industry leaders who bring technical diversity and maturity to our team and we're confident that we will deliver the next-generation Infantry Fighting Vehicle the American Soldier clearly deserves," Pat Williams, vice president and general manager of Army and Marine Corps programs at Oshkosh, said in a statement.

The two companies have "an exclusive teaming agreement," according to a Hanwha press release.

Hanwha has exported combat vehicles to Malaysia, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Turkey and India, in addition to supplying wheeled and tracked combat vehicles to the South Korean military, the press release stated.

Oshkosh is not sharing any details of its proposal, according to a company spokeswoman.

Oshkosh does not currently produce any combat vehicles for the Army. The company builds many of the Army's current tactical wheeled vehicles, including the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles.

Three companies that had participated in the previous OMFV acquisition process announced last week that they would bid for the OMFV: BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetall.

These bids are for the concept design phase, the second phase of the current OMFV acquisition process. There will be another open competition in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023 for the next phases of the program, the detailed design and prototype phases.

211147