American Rheinmetall delivered the first Lynx XM30 prototype to the Army this week, the company said in a Tuesday statement, the latest move in the service’s yearslong effort to replace the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
The vehicle is slated to start testing, while seven additional prototypes are scheduled for delivery later this year. The evaluation is part of a roughly $764 million Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract intended to take the vehicle from digital design through validation.
The Lynx XM30 was created for a battlefield increasingly shaped by drones and electronic warfare, according to the company, and its design features modular, open architecture to enable the quick integration of new technology while it is in service. Rheinmetall said the prototype has a first-of-its-kind hybrid-electric powertrain that combines a traditional engine with electric power.
Once the prototypes clear safety checks, soldiers will put them through exercises that simulate combat. The Army plans to do technical testing while troops simultaneously train with additional prototypes in what Matt Warnick, American Rheinmetall’s CEO, called a “parallel evaluation timeline.”
In 2023, the Army selected American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics Land Systems for the XM30 design phase. The prototypes are meant to supersede the Bradley, which entered service in the 1980s.
The XM30 model is built off of Rheinmetall’s Lynx KF41.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.