Retired Sergeant Major of the Army Ken Preston opened American Rheinmetall’s Day 2 panel at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2026 Annual Meeting and Exposition with a theme central to the company’s development of the Lynx XM30.
“Today our focus is on the Soldier,” Preston said in front of an audience of Army and industry leaders, before introducing panelists Chris Sankovich, John Pope and Nate Greenough and posing the question that would guide the discussion.
“Are we giving our Soldiers a platform that allows them to see first, understand first, decide first, engage first and survive to continue the fight?”
Preston began with John Pope, asking what requirement he would put first for a next-generation fighting vehicle. Pope, who leads emerging technologies and special projects for American Rheinmetall, identified Soldier-centered, intuitive design as essential to combat readiness.
“In the fast-paced Army that we live in today, it’s critical that our Soldiers, men and women that are going to fight in this vehicle, are able to quickly train and develop those skills during their training phases to help them win and come home,” said the retired Army infantry senior noncommissioned officer, combat veteran and Bradley Master Gunner.
Greenough built on the training side of Pope’s answer. The Lynx XM30 Training Lead and American Rheinmetall Master Gunner, who spent his final Army assignment as a senior instructor and gunnery team chief at the Bradley Master Gunner School at Fort Benning, Georgia, highlighted the vehicle’s embedded trainer as a key advantage for crew training and readiness.
“If they have a vehicle, they can train whenever they like for however long they like,” Greenough said.
The embedded trainer allows crews to train within the vehicle itself, reducing their reliance on separate training systems that crews throughout the battalion or brigade must compete to access.
Preston brought Chris Sankovich into the conversation next. A former mechanized Army infantry officer, Sankovich leads engineering work on the Lynx XM30’s fire control and 360-degree situational awareness systems. Preston’s question centered on what a battlefield increasingly filled with drones, persistent observation, precision fires and electronic warfare requires from the next fighting vehicle.
“I think from an engineering perspective, what we need to ask of this platform is to be adaptable, because over the last 10, 20, 30 years of an evolving battlefield, we can see that our vehicle needs to evolve with the threat,” Sankovich said. “The infrastructure needs to enable new capabilities to be introduced rapidly to meet the Soldier’s need.”
At this point, Preston turned to what Soldier-centered design actually means, with Greenough offering a specific example of how Team Lynx’s Soldier experience directly influences design decisions. He pointed to the flow of information, explaining that legacy platforms can depend on separate computer systems or lengthy radio transmissions.
“We’ve given the commanders and the gunners the ability to see and react to information in real time as the conditions are changing on the battlefield,” Greenough said.
He added that Soldiers were also brought into the program early and provided input as development progressed. “We took their recommendations and incorporated… their likes and dislikes,” he said. “And we adjusted our design accordingly.”
Soldier feedback remains central to Team Lynx’s development of the Lynx XM30, a core tenet that gives Soldiers a direct voice in design decisions affecting combat effectiveness and survivability.
Pope then illustrated another key Soldier need. He highlighted the importance of having a vehicle architecture capable of integrating “the technologies of tomorrow” to support a “forward line of troops, forward line of sensors, forward line of robots” amid battlefield standoff in a future large-scale combat operation. He described the Lynx XM30 as the “hub of those operations” as forces move forward.
“I think it gives that leader and that company commander the arm of decision,” he said.
Sankovich addressed how operational input from Soldiers can quickly be turned into an engineering design change. The Lynx XM30’s digital design allows the engineering team to prioritize Soldier recommendations and incorporate them into the vehicle’s software and mechanical systems.
“The infrastructure that this platform has enables us to rapidly iterate based on that feedback,” Sankovich said.
With the vehicle crew covered, Preston steered the panel to the infantry squad in the back, asking Pope how the dismounted infantry should be part of the fighting system from the beginning.
“That vehicle has to be the hub and the information center for the dismounts in the back,” Pope said.
Preston next engaged Greenough about what the squad should know about the battlefield before the ramp ever drops.
“A Soldier should not arrive at the fight and discover the battlefield,” Greenough said.
Before leaving the vehicle, he added, the infantry squad should understand the terrain, the environment it is entering and the decisions it may need to make once outside. Sankovich followed that up with how the vehicle should help the crew and squad develop a shared understanding of the fight. The Lynx XM30’s 360-degree situational awareness systems, he explained, give Soldiers a clearer picture of what awaits them before they leave the vehicle. He described being able to see the first rally point, understand the terrain outside and maintain awareness of teammates and sectors of fire.
Adding context from a training perspective, Greenough emphasized the need for crews and squads to move beyond established roles and become more fluid in their responsibilities. He said the vehicle’s capabilities can help Soldiers understand where they are going more quickly while reducing lengthy radio communications and misunderstandings.
Later, Preston asked why the Army needs a new fighting vehicle rather than continuing to upgrade the Bradley indefinitely.
“We love the Bradley,” Greenough said, calling it the “reigning middleweight champion of the world.” But he emphasized the need for additional electrical power and more room in the back for infantry wearing modern protective equipment and carrying more gear, while Sankovich approached the same question from the engineering side. At some point, Sankovich said, the Army must consider whether so many changes have been made that the vehicle is no longer really a Bradley. The Lynx XM30’s architecture is intended to allow future capabilities to be integrated without requiring a major redesign each time requirements change.
Sankovich also acknowledged that the engineering team does not have every answer about how those Soldiers will ultimately use what has been developed.
“I don’t necessarily know how the Soldier is going to fight this vehicle,” he said. “I’m very excited to see with all these additional capabilities, what are they going to dream up?”
Greenough echoed that point, acknowledging that years of operating the Bradley inevitably influence how veterans approach a fighting vehicle, while younger Soldiers come to the Lynx XM30 with a different relationship to technology.
Preston also raised an important question that often accompanies increasingly advanced battlefield technology, asking what crews and squads must still be able to do when communications are degraded and technology is no longer available.
“There is no replacement for those Soldier fundamental skills,” Pope said, adding that the technology provides additional tools, but Soldiers must still be able to fall back on the basic skills they rely on today when operating in denied environments.
Near the end of the panel, Preston turned to each speaker and asked what he would tell the young sergeant or lieutenant who may one day take the Lynx XM30 into combat. Sankovich spoke directly to those future crews.
“What we’ve delivered isn’t the final iteration of XM30,” he said. “Soldier-centered design doesn’t end at first unit equipped.” He continued, “Have a voice. Tell your leadership. Tell the Army I need X, Y, Z capability to be effective.”
Pope encouraged future crews to “open the aperture” and use the vehicle’s technology to enable new ways of fighting rather than defaulting to how things have always been done. Greenough, meanwhile, urged them to “step out of the box,” remain adaptable and be willing to learn as roles and responsibilities evolve.
Finally, Preston closed by returning to the question he had put before the panel at the beginning and the standard by which the Bradley’s successor will ultimately be judged.
“Technology matters when it makes our Soldiers more capable and gives them a better chance of accomplishing the mission and coming home.”