6.10.23
The Army’s new assault gun will be the first combat vehicle named for a post-9/11 soldier, Army leaders said Thursday, adding that they’d fixed problems such as toxic gun exhaust filling the turret. The vehicle produced by the Mobile Protected Firepower program will now be known as the M10 Booker Combat Vehicle. The name honors Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker, a tank commander who was killed in action during the U.S. Army’s 2003 surprise strike on Baghdad, later dubbed the “thunder run.” It also honors Pvt. Robert Booker, who was killed in World War II while attacking a German machine-gun post, for which he posthumously received the Medal of Honor. The designation also echoes the M10 tank destroyer used in WWII.
The $18 million Booker is an armored, tracked vehicle designed to support infantry during assaults by destroying enemy bunkers and lightly armored vehicles with its 105mm gun. The 38-ton vehicle can be transported by air. A recent GAO report called the Booker a “bright spot” in Army acquisition and noted its successful use of rapid prototyping. The Army plans to buy 377 Bookers. The first production models will be delivered in November, with enough to equip a first battalion by late 2024 or early 2025. That unit, which he did not identify, would handle operational testing of the new vehicles. The Booker’s design has not been shaped by lessons from Ukraine, a war that is “too young for drawing the sorts of conclusions that would change requirements” for a combat vehicle. General Dynamics Land Systems is building the Bookers in Lima, Ohio and Michigan, with vehicle assembly being done in Anniston, Alabama.
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