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The U.S. Army recently selected General Dynamics' entrant to the Mobile Protected Firepower program
as its new light tank. This video will provide a brief overview of how the
MPF is tentatively intended to fit into future army units and its combat role.
First, the mission. MPF's genesis started in 2013 when the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,
Major General John Nicholson, issued a statement of need for air mobile firepower.
"The idea of having mobile protective firepower that can be delivered by air, whether airdrop or
air land, and get to the fight immediately enables us to retain the initiative we gain by jumping
in. Moving at the speed of World War 2 paratrooper we're going to rapidly lose the initiative we gain
by conducting a strategic or operational joint forcible entry. If we instead get a force on
the ground that's mobile and has firepower, we can retain that initiative and achieve decisive
results against the enemy." The MPF is intended to provide long-range direct fire support to
Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs). It'll be capable of destroying fortifications obstacles,
structures, personnel and light armored vehicles. Although light infantry units are currently
capable of destroying threats like a machine gun nest, the process is much more deliberate
and slower than with an armed and armored vehicle. The MPF will also use its firepower, cross-country
mobility and armor protection to produce a shock effect to close with and destroy the enemy.
Shock effect is basically when the concentrated application of violence, often associated with
superior firepower and speed, mentally paralyzes the enemy and reduces their ability to resist.
In this regard, the MPF's mission is almost identical to the Stryker Mobile Gun System
before its retirement. In 2018 the 82nd Airborne reactivated one of its old Sheridan units,
the Alpha Company of 4th Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, to test the concept with former Marine
Corps LAV-25s. Current MPF SOPs were developed as a synthesis of Sheridan and LAV-25 experience,
as well as initial testing of the MPF platforms themselves. However, unlike the LAV,
M8 AGS or Sheridan, the MPF is not air droppable. It's air landable, with two tanks fitting a C-17.
The Army expects to receive delivery of the first 26 MPFs in December 2023 with the first battalion
headquarters and MPF company equipped by 2025 at Fort Bragg (the garrison of the 82nd Airborne
Division). Followed by a training company at Fort Benning, where the focus will be on training the
trainers and leaders. This will be followed by a National Guard unit and the 173rd Airborne Brigade
in 2027, and then the 101st Airborne. A total of 504 MPFs are slated to be delivered by about 2035.
Initially the Army was thinking of one MPF company supporting each Infantry BCT. This was
pretty much necessary when the force structure was centered on tactically independent BCTs.
However ,with the planned shift towards larger division-centric operations they now intend to
field a tank battalion at the division level in most airborne, air assault and light infantry
divisions. Battalions can then be split up to reinforce each light infantry brigade.
MPF battalions are not going to Stryker or armored units.
There are a few reasons why they're going with the tank battalion at division instead of a company
in each brigade. Tactically you could argue it gives the division commander the flexibility
to weight the MPFs towards the main efforts, so hypothetically instead of spreading them around to
every brigade they could give more to the first echelon brigades or even hold them in reserve.
It also means that the light BCTs don't have to deploy a tank company if they don't need it,
since adding armored vehicles will adversely impact strategic air mobility and add logistical
burdens. But the bigger issues are maintenance and training. One of the factors that led to the
Stryker MGS's demise was poor readiness. At its adoption the MGS was meant to be dispersed in
every rifle company, but it's going to end its service life centralized in the brigade cavalry
squadron (a move taken to centralize maintenance and gunnery). When the 82nd ran its tests with
the LAV-25 it found that despite being only one of 40 companies in the brigade, that LAVs took up 25%
of the brigade XO's time due to maintenance and training demands. Historically when the U.S. Army
employed regimental tank companies in infantry units during Korea, tankers were isolated from
armor expertise that tankers in armor units had access to. Brigade MPF companies would present
three different 62-man chunks of tankers across the division needing proper training. This would
both unsustainably stress brigade staffs and likely lead to a lower quality force overall.
As a result of these unique challenges the MPF battalion will have some key differences
from normal tank battalions. At the lowest levels the MPF company will basically be identical to an
Abrams tank company. The MPF has four crew members like the Abrams: a commander, gunner, driver and
loader. They'll be 19-Kilos, armor crewmen. MPF platoons will also have four tanks, more than
likely divided into an A Section under the platoon leader and a B Section under the platoon sergeant.
The companies will then have three platoons and a company headquarters, that includes two tanks and
a small administrative section. The big changes though come with the battalion headquarters.
The way in which the battalion is used could change, but currently it's not intended to
maneuver as a tactical fighting force. Basically it's not meant to function as a whole tank
battalion undertaking its independent mission. For this reason the battalion HQ will have a
smaller S-2 shop responsible for intelligence and S-6 shop responsible for communications.
The S-2 becomes mostly oriented towards providing physical security while the S-6 shop focuses
mainly on communication equipment maintenance on the platforms and signals infrastructure in the
battalion HQ. The supported infantry brigade will provide more tactical staffs when the
MPFs are attached. The emphasis will instead be placed on the S-3 shop responsible for training
in gunnery and the S-4 shop responsible for logistics. In addition the forward support
company of the MF battalion is designed to provide an even maintenance slice to each MPF company when
attaching it to an infantry brigade. This will include variants of the M88 armored recovery
vehicle. So aesthetically the MPF units will look similar to their heavier Abrams counterparts,
but they'll have entirely different missions. Unlike the Abrams, the MPF will not be a primary
anti-tank capability. For light infantry these are currently the TOW ATGM at the battalion level and
dismounted Javelins. Ultimately issues may arise from crew members and leaders treating the MPF
like in Abrams due to being operated by the same MOS. Or leadership in the supported infantry unit
(who may have only ever been in light infantry organizations) not knowing how to properly
employ their attached companies. However these are issues that can be remedied with proper training.
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