The U.S. Army continues to transition away from fighting insurgencies and towards combating near-peer competitors such as China and Russia in a conventional mobile war. It's now decided it needs a new light tank to provide infantry support and reconnaissance.

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This new U.S. light tank will likely be lightly armored and will rely for the bulk of its protection on an active protection system (APS) and high speed. It probably won't be armed with a tank gun such as the 105 mm common to many tanks but will instead kill other tanks with either the FGM-148 Javelin fire-and-forget anti-tank missile or the BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missile.

Secondary armament for this light tank could be a 30 millimeter chain gun such as the Mk44 Bushmaster II arming some U.S. Stryker eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles.

But probably the most intriguing feature for this new light tank will be its armor -- or lack of it. U.S. military planners have long acknowledged anti-armor weapons such as the man portable RPG series and anti-tank missiles such as Russia's deadly Kornet guided missile with a tandem warhead meant to destroy main battle tanks are winning the gun-armor race.

Future protection for upcoming armored vehicles will instead rely on "active protection systems" such as the Israeli Trophy and Russian Arena. The U.S. military doesn't have its own operational APS and will instead use foreign systems such as Trophy as an interim solution for advanced protection for its combat vehicles against RPGs, anti-tank guided missiles and other threats.

The Army is working with the science and technology community to develop the Modular Active Protection System (MAPS), the Army's S&T cornerstone APS effort. In the meantime, the Quick Kill APS is still being tested this year and could become operational over the next two years.

There is some indication the development of the new light tank could draw on developments made by the Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

GXV-T is an effort to develop technologies and designs to create lighter future armored military vehicles. It seeks to develop ways to protect vehicles and their occupants using mobility rather than relying on armor for survival.

TagsUS Army, Light Tank, Ground X-Vehicle Technology, GXV-T