General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, has released the first photo of the newest medium-weight, large-caliber Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) combat vehicle.

During this years GDLS Canada Supplier Conference in London, the company has released some presentation that included the first confirmed photo of their MPF Bid Sample combat vehicle and 3D visualization of the MPF prototype.

According to open sources, the new MPF combat vehicle developing for support U.S. Army infantry brigades. The vehicles are required to be highly lethal, survivable and mobile.

The U.S. Army expects that new MPF will be a 38-ton tracked armored vehicle capable to provide Soldiers with speed, protection, lethality and the ability to wage a multidomain battle, working in concert with other ground forces to overwhelm the enemy with multiple simultaneous challenges.

The new “light tank” will have improved armor and a 120 mm main gun that looks like the Abrams’ 120 mm cannon. It is expected that MPF’s turret will be a scaled-down version of the M1 Abrams turret designed to engage in combat with tanks and other armoured vehicles. Some sources reported that new vehicle will be equipped with 105 mm cannon and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun.

According to a recent report released by Army News Service, the U.S. military expects to receive about 500 MPFs, which it will start fielding in fiscal 2025.

Each infantry brigade combat team will get their own 14-vehicle company for armor support.

One vendor will be chosen to begin producing the vehicles in fiscal 2022.