General Dynamics Delivers First XM30 Wolf, Opening the Army's Bradley Replacement Trial

General Dynamics Land Systems delivered the first XM30 Wolf prototype to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on August 28, 2026, the company announced the following day. It is the first vehicle to reach the Army under the program meant to replace the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, in service since 1981.

The Wolf seats a crew of two side by side and carries six dismounted infantrymen in the rear compartment, the configuration the Army wrote into its requirement. Its main armament is the Northrop Grumman XM913 50 mm cannon firing 50x228 mm ammunition, with a 7.62 mm M240 machine gun and an optional 12.7 mm M2A1. The turret can also carry BGM-71 TOW or CCMS-H anti-tank missiles and a launcher for loitering munitions. Armor is modular, and the vehicle mounts the Elbit Iron Fist active protection system.

General Dynamics is one of two finalists picked in June 2023. American Rheinmetall Vehicles is offering a design derived from the KF41 Lynx, and both companies have been building and testing prototypes in Michigan. General Dynamics is due to hand over eight vehicles in all, one to Aberdeen for instrumented testing and seven to Fort Hood, Texas; American Rheinmetall's quantity has not been disclosed.

Soldiers of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, the "Ironhorse" brigade, will run the operational evaluation in Texas this fall, culminating in a National Training Center rotation. The same brigade is also due to receive prototypes of the M1E3, the next iteration of the M1 Abrams, putting both of the Army's flagship armor programs in front of the same crews. A production decision could follow in late spring 2027. The brigadier general leading the Army's maneuver acquisition programs told Breaking Defense the service intends "to carry two vendors as long as we possibly can", adding that "it becomes a question about resourcing the money".

The fleet at stake is the largest of its kind. The U.S. Army fields 2,310 M2 and 1,200 M3 Bradleys in active units with a further 2,800 in storage, alongside 2,640 active M1 Abrams, the deepest armored inventory in the global ground forces ranking. Replacing the Bradley has already defeated three attempts: the Ground Combat Vehicle, cancelled in 2014; the Future Fighting Vehicle study that followed it; and the first Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle competition, which the Army restarted in February 2020 after the field narrowed to a single compliant bid, the General Dynamics Griffin III derived from the ASCOD and Ajax families.

The prototypes now go through checkout at Aberdeen before moving to Fort Hood. The Army expects the XM30 to enter service in the early 2030s, replacing upgraded Bradleys in combat units progressively rather than all at once.