General Dynamics Unveils ‘Light Weight’ Tank That Could Be Deployed By 2025

The Department of Defense (DoD) is anticipating the next-generation of main-battle tanks to hit the modern battlefield by 2025. 

In the meantime, General Dynamics showed off its next-generation of main-battle tanks during the 2019 Modern Day Marine expo in Quantico, Virginia, over the weekend, reported Defense Blog.

GDLS’s MPF the Griffin II MGS pic.twitter.com/Vh5o3fjpwV

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General Dynamics Land Systems, a segment within General Dynamics, unveiled the advanced, ‘light tank,’ called the Griffin II. 

The DoD/Army is currently searching for new tracked armored vehicles able to defend infantry squads on the modern battlefield. 

Griffin II is part of a more significant effort by the DoD to develop weapons that can be quickly deployed around the world. The new tank is light enough that it can be airlifted into battle. 

The Army is shifting focus from counterinsurgency to high-intensity war-fighting against China and Russia, and will need a new lightweight tank for the next conflict. 

Griffin II has a 120mm main gun and weighs around 38-tons. It will “provide soldiers with speed, protection, lethality and the ability to wage a multi-domain battle, working in concert with other ground forces to overwhelm the enemy with multiple simultaneous challenges,” said Defense Blog. It has a scaled-down version of the M1 Abrams turret with a similar overall design. 

The new tank is expected to have a higher rating of survivability than the M1 Abrams, a tank that entered service in 1980, and has been used in all US involved Middle Eastern wars since the Gulf War (1990-1991).

The new tank will feature advanced armor, more lightweight than ever before, along with intelligent sensors that are integrated with the hardware, software, and effectors to create an overarching, layered system of passive and active self-defense measures, Defense Blog said. 

Griffin II could enter service by 2025, and be flown to any battlefield in the world via a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.