MICV-65

A number of designs were studied as part of the MICV project, but none of them entered service for a variety of reasons.

As the war progressed the doctrine of combined arms became better refined, and the need for specialist vehicles to keep the infantry in close contact with the armor became increasingly important.

In the post-war era most armies, save Germany's, started introducing fully tracked vehicles in the dedicated armored personnel carrier role, including the Soviet BTR-50, British FV432, and the US M113.

Further, while the APC's moved to and from combat the infantry section in the back had nothing to do, a claustrophobic environment where the men could not add to the fight.

In the 1960s the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning started exploring these concepts on their own initiative.

This experiment led to the development of the XM734, similar to the Infantry School version with the addition of a centrally mounted one-man enclosed gun cupola equipped with twin MGs or other weapons, and pintles for machine guns that could be fired from the rear of the vehicle though the top hatch.

All of the vehicles were equipped with a similar turret armed with the M139 20 mm cannon (a licensed version of the Hispano-Suiza HS.820) and an M60-derived machine gun on a pintle mount.

It featured a new steel/aluminum laminate armor that protected it against small arms up to the Soviet post-war 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun, which equipped the BTR-60 and BTR-80.

Like the earlier MICV vehicles, the XM723 carried nine infantry that were seated back-to-back with rifle ports and vision blocks.

Meanwhile, a new task force, under Brigadier General Larkin, studied various 3rd party IFVs, including the German Marder, French AMX-10P, and even examples of the BMP captured from Syria.

Larkin's study ended in 1976, adding a further requirement that whatever vehicle was selected it should be available in a version equipped with the TOW missile for the light cavalry role.