The 5 Defense Contractors Fighting to Build an Army Robotank

For more than a decade, the United States Army has been seeking a new armored personnel carrier to replace its aging Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV). The new armored vehicle, tentatively titled the "Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle," is to be functionally capable of carrying six infantrymen in addition to its crew of two, small enough to be transported by a C-17 cargo plane, and capable of carrying an assortment of weapons, including medium-caliber guns, anti-tank missiles, and eventually directed energy weapons as well (that's right -- laser guns), according to the Congressional Research Service. This fourth round of the Army's (so far) ill-fated Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program actually began about a year ago, when the Army invited "requests for proposals" from American industry to build the thing.