Too heavy and too late; meet Army’s M10 Booker, a tank without a mission

Defense One’s Meghann Myers covers the development of the US Army’s M10 Booker—meant to be a nimble, air-droppable “light tank” for infantry support—that arrived years late, overweight, and unusable on key bases like Fort Campbell.

Originally envisioned in 2013 as a spiritual successor to the 16-ton M551 Sheridan, the M10 has ballooned into a 42-ton behemoth—too heavy for C-130 transport, incapable of being airdropped, and barred from crossing most bridges at infantry-centric installations.

“This is not a story of acquisition gone awry,” Army Chief Technology Officer Alex Miller told Defense One. “This is a story of the requirements process creating so much inertia that the Army couldn’t get out of its own way.”

The vehicle’s design drift began when early requirements for airdrop and C-130 transport were quietly dropped. With no one empowered to reverse course, the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program pushed ahead, locking the Army into a platform that now fails to serve its intended users.

• Infrastructure at Fort Campbell can’t handle the M10’s weight: Divisions can't train with them.
• A dubious orderbook: While 504 vehicles were ordered, that figure was baked into the requirements to avoid triggering a costly program review—ensuring production momentum regardless of utility.
• Technical limitations abound: The M10 still uses SINCGARS, a radio system first fielded in 1990. It lacks autonomy despite the Pentagon’s push for uncrewed systems. Even transport assumptions faltered when the Air Force revised C-17 load limits, reducing carry capacity to a single M10 per aircraft.

Three M10s are operating at Fort Bragg, but further procurement is uncertain. The Army is eyeing a new Abrams variant with features the M10 was supposed to have: lighter weight, partial autonomy, and modern protection systems.