Photo: U.S. Army
If you've been watching what the U.S. Army is doing in terms of overhauling its operations and gear, then you probably know the military branch is knee-deep in a modernization effort the likes of which we haven't seen in a very long time. If fact, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, "the Army is undergoing its greatest transformation in over forty years."
In all, the organization plans to deploy no less than 24 new combat systems across its units in 2023 alone, and that's something probably no other military in the world is capable of. Contributing to this transformation is something called the Mobile Protected Firepower. Not a very inspired name for a combat vehicle, but one that hides behind it something designed to provide the soldiers using it a greater survivability, easier ways of identifying threats, and the capability to work off the beaten path even easier than on asphalt.
The Mobile Protected Firepower, which looks eerily similar to a light tank, is to be tasked with suppressing and eliminating fortified enemy positions. It is operated by a crew of four people, and throws into combat a large caliber cannon, but also tools meant to aid its crew do its job, including a thermal viewer.
The Mobile Protected Firepower is being put together by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), and the first units of this new breed of diesel-powered machines are expected to enter service with the U.S. Army by the end of the year. Only it will not do so using that very unappealing name.
The U.S. Army has a tradition of naming its vehicles after hero soldiers of previous wars. That's the case, for instance, with the M1126 Stryker, M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley, and even the old M60 Patton tank.
For this new fighting machine, the name M10 Booker Combat Vehicle was chosen and will be used from now on. The choice of name is meant to honor not one, but two soldiers who died in wars decades apart: World War II's Pvt. Robert D. Booker, killed during the Allied North African campaign in Tunisia in 1943, and Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker, who died during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. This marks the first time the Army named one of its machines after someone who fought in a post-9/11 war.
"The M10 Booker Combat Vehicle is named in their honor because it will accomplish what they both did – enabling squads to continue pushing forward through heavy machine-gun fire while protecting our most important weapon system: our Soldiers," said McConville in a statement.
As per the contract the Army awarded GDLS, the company will at first have to produce a total of 96 Bookers, with plans to have a fleet as large as over 500 units deployed by American soldiers in the near future.
In all, the organization plans to deploy no less than 24 new combat systems across its units in 2023 alone, and that's something probably no other military in the world is capable of. Contributing to this transformation is something called the Mobile Protected Firepower. Not a very inspired name for a combat vehicle, but one that hides behind it something designed to provide the soldiers using it a greater survivability, easier ways of identifying threats, and the capability to work off the beaten path even easier than on asphalt.
The Mobile Protected Firepower, which looks eerily similar to a light tank, is to be tasked with suppressing and eliminating fortified enemy positions. It is operated by a crew of four people, and throws into combat a large caliber cannon, but also tools meant to aid its crew do its job, including a thermal viewer.
The Mobile Protected Firepower is being put together by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), and the first units of this new breed of diesel-powered machines are expected to enter service with the U.S. Army by the end of the year. Only it will not do so using that very unappealing name.
The U.S. Army has a tradition of naming its vehicles after hero soldiers of previous wars. That's the case, for instance, with the M1126 Stryker, M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley, and even the old M60 Patton tank.
For this new fighting machine, the name M10 Booker Combat Vehicle was chosen and will be used from now on. The choice of name is meant to honor not one, but two soldiers who died in wars decades apart: World War II's Pvt. Robert D. Booker, killed during the Allied North African campaign in Tunisia in 1943, and Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker, who died during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. This marks the first time the Army named one of its machines after someone who fought in a post-9/11 war.
"The M10 Booker Combat Vehicle is named in their honor because it will accomplish what they both did – enabling squads to continue pushing forward through heavy machine-gun fire while protecting our most important weapon system: our Soldiers," said McConville in a statement.
As per the contract the Army awarded GDLS, the company will at first have to produce a total of 96 Bookers, with plans to have a fleet as large as over 500 units deployed by American soldiers in the near future.
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