New photo shows Wolf XM30 hidden under tarp

General Dynamics Land Systems released the first publicly available photo of its Wolf XM30 prototype in transit this week, showing the vehicle wrapped entirely in a black tarp and strapped to a flatbed trailer.

The image follows the company’s confirmation that it delivered the prototype to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on August 21, a delivery The Defence Blog previously reported based on a social media post from Geoffrey Norman, a retired Army brigadier general who now serves as director of strategy at General Dynamics Land Systems.

The tarp keeps the vehicle’s actual shape and design details concealed. General Dynamics has not released an uncovered photo of the Wolf XM30 or said when the vehicle’s full appearance will be shown publicly. The transport photo is the closest look the public has gotten so far at the physical hardware behind the program.

Norman, who spent 30 years in the Army as a tanker and cavalryman before joining General Dynamics two years ago, worked on the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team at Detroit Arsenal before leaving the service. In his earlier post announcing the delivery, he said the Wolf uses what the company calls a Modular Open Systems Architecture, intended to let new software and hardware be added to the vehicle without a full redesign, a “born-digital” approach he said was built specifically for future upgrades.

Norman said the August 21 delivery is the first of several Wolf XM30 prototypes General Dynamics plans to complete and hand over to the Army. Additional vehicles are expected to go to Fort Hood, Texas, where the Army will run them through an evaluation process that could lead to a full-rate production decision. General Dynamics has credited teams across six sites, Sterling Heights, Lima, Scranton, Tallahassee, Grand Rapids and London, with building the vehicle.

The Wolf XM30 is one of two competing designs in the Army’s program to replace the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, which has been in continuous service for more than 40 years. American Rheinmetall Vehicles is building the program’s other entrant, the Lynx XM30, and delivered the first of eight Lynx prototypes to the Army within days of General Dynamics’ Wolf delivery. That delivery put the Lynx into government-led developmental and performance testing under the program’s Phase 3/4 Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract, worth approximately $764 million. Rheinmetall has said it will deliver its remaining seven prototypes later this year for use in operational unit training, running in parallel with technical evaluation as part of the Army’s Transformation in Contact 2.0 initiative.

Both companies are developing and testing their prototypes in Michigan, drawing on the state’s concentration of Army ground-vehicle expertise centered on Detroit Arsenal, home to the Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and the Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center.

The Army is expected to select a winning XM30 design in 2027, with the design and prototype phase of the program alone valued at $1.6 billion.