The General Dynamics Griffin is a series of armored fighting vehicles under development by

General Dynamics Land Systems General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) is a manufacturer of military vehicles such as tanks and lighter armored fighting vehicles. History In February 1982 Chrysler announced the sale of Chrysler Defense, its profitable defense subsidiary, to ...

(GDLS) for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. The Griffin is a derivative of

ASCOD The ASCOD (Austrian Spanish Cooperation Development) armoured fighting vehicle family is the product of a cooperation agreement between Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG and Spanish General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas ( both companies are no ...

family of AFVs, which was also designed by GDLS.

Platform

Griffin - Technology Demonstrator (TD)

At AUSA 2016 annual meeting, General Dynamics unveiled 120mm Griffin Technology Demonstrator (TD) as a "conversation starter" for the US Army

Mobile Protected Firepower The Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) system is a U.S. Army program to procure a light tank that is capable of providing mobile protected direct offensive fire capability. The program is part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle program. A previo ...

(MPF) program. MPF is a light tracked vehicle intended to provide support of large caliber direct fire for Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The chassis of Griffin I shown at AUSA is from British Scout SV program (now called Ajax), but it only has six road wheels. The welded aluminum turret is armed with 120mm XM360 lightweight gun which was developed by the Army Research, Development and Engineering Center. The XM360 gun was developed as part of the canceled

Future Combat Systems Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unpr ...

(FCS) program.

Griffin II

Griffin II is offered under Army's

(MPF). In accordance with the program's caliber requirements, it incorporated a 105mm caliber M35 gun and a redesigned chassis. The M35 was originally designed and developed by Benét Laboratories,

Watervliet Arsenal The Watervliet Arsenal is an arsenal of the United States Army located in Watervliet, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River. It is the oldest continuously active arsenal in the United States, and today produces much of the artillery fo ...

in 1983 for the Marine Corps' Mobile Protected Gun Program. It was later incorporated in the Army's

M8 Armored Gun System The M8 Armored Gun System (AGS), sometimes known as the Buford, is an American light tank that was intended to replace the M551 Sheridan and TOW missile-armed Humvees in the 82nd Airborne Division and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (2nd ACR) of ...

light tank, which was canceled in 1996. The M35 is about lighter than the M68 used on the

M60 tank The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

. In December 2018, GDLS was downselected, along with BAE Systems, to develop prototypes. GDLS presented its first prototype in April 2020. BAE's M8 AGS proposal was disqualified in March 2022. In June 2022, GDLS won Mobile Protected Firepower program competition and was awarded a contract worth up to $1.14 billion.

Griffin III

Griffin III was first unveiled at the

Association of the United States Army The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) is a private, non-profit organization that serves as the professional association of the United States Army. Founded in 1950, it has 121 chapters worldwide. Membership is open to everyone, not ju ...

's 2018 Exposition in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...

. It was being offered under Army's

Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle The Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) is a U.S. Army program to replace the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. OMFV is one part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle portfolio of programs. After the cancelation of the Ground Combat Veh ...

(OMFV) program with six fully equipped infantry carrying option in the back. This version, while similar in weight to Griffin II, scaled down the main gun from 105mm caliber to the 50 mm XM913 gun system. It is equipped with the

IMI Systems , former_name = Israel Military Industries , type = State-owned enterprise , industry = Arms industry , fate = Acquired by Elbit Systems , successor = Elbit Systems Land , founded = , founder = , defunct = , hq_location_city = Ramat H ...

’ Iron Fist Active Protection System (APS) and AeroVironment’s

Switchblade A switchblade (aka switch knife, automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, flick knife, Stiletto, flick blade, or spring knife (Sprenger,Benson, Ragnar (1989). ''Switchblade: The Ace of Blades''. Paladin Press. pp. 1–14. . The sw ...

loitering munition A loitering munition (also known as a suicide droneLoitering Muniti ...

system.

References

{{Authority control Experimental military vehicles General Dynamics land vehicles Tracked armoured fighting vehicles Tracked infantry fighting vehicles Light tanks of the United States

Platform

Griffin - Technology Demonstrator (TD)

Griffin II

Griffin III

See also

References