M10 Booker Specs, the Army Light Tank That Was Canceled

The M10 Booker is the roughly 42-tonne, 105mm-armed combat vehicle General Dynamics built to give US light infantry its own armor, and the program the Army canceled in 2025 after roughly 80 deliveries. Conceived as Mobile Protected Firepower, named for two fallen soldiers, and killed by a doctrine shift, the Booker’s short life says more about the future of armor than most vehicles that survive.

M10 Booker specifications

Why the Army wanted a light tank

Light infantry has lacked organic armor since the M551 Sheridan retired in the 1990s, leaving airborne and light divisions to call on 70-tonne Abrams they could rarely deploy with. Mobile Protected Firepower was the fix, a vehicle light enough to move by C-17 in useful numbers and armored enough to crack bunkers and light armor ahead of advancing infantry. General Dynamics beat a BAE Systems design in June 2022 with an initial contract worth about 1.1 billion dollars for up to 96 vehicles, drawing on the sensor and fire-control lineage of the M1 Abrams, as covered in our General Dynamics profile.

The first production vehicle was handed over in February 2024, and fielding began with the 82nd Airborne Division’s supporting battalion.

Is the M10 Booker a tank

The Army insisted the Booker was not a light tank, because its job was infantry support rather than tank-on-tank combat, but functionally it was a light tank in everything except doctrine, a tracked, turreted, 105mm gun vehicle with a four-soldier crew. The distinction mattered inside the Pentagon because calling it a tank would have invited comparisons with the Abrams it could not win, and obscured the real requirement of accompanying infantry where heavy armor cannot go, a role wheeled vehicles like the Stryker’s gun variants had only partly filled.

Why the M10 Booker was canceled

In May 2025 the Army Transformation Initiative ended further M10 procurement, part of a sweeping portfolio cut that also hit other armor and aviation programs. Officials argued the vehicle had grown too heavy for the airborne employment once imagined, that two vehicles per C-17 fell short of the deployability promise, and that the drone-saturated battlefields of Ukraine argued for cheaper, uncrewed and more expendable systems over a new class of crewed armor. Roughly 80 vehicles had been delivered or funded when the decision landed.

The cancellation was contested. Supporters noted the Booker had met its requirements and that infantry still lacks protected firepower; critics replied that meeting a 2015 requirement is not the same as meeting 2025’s.

What happens to the vehicles now

The Army has weighed options for the delivered fleet, from concentrating the vehicles in a single formation to using them as testbeds for autonomy and fire-support experiments, and no final disposition had been confirmed as of this writing. General Dynamics continues to market the chassis technology abroad, and the 105mm turret’s fire-control stack feeds other programs. For the industrial base, the sting is real but bounded, the Booker line was still ramping when it stopped.

M10 Booker frequently asked questions

What is the M10 Booker?

A roughly 42-tonne armored vehicle with a 105mm gun, built by General Dynamics to give US light infantry mobile protected firepower.

Was the M10 Booker canceled?

Yes. The Army ended further procurement in May 2025 under the Army Transformation Initiative, after roughly 80 vehicles were delivered or funded.

Is the M10 Booker a light tank?

The Army officially said no, defining it as an infantry support vehicle, but in design terms it is a light tank with a 105mm gun and four crew.

Who was the M10 Booker named after?

Pvt. Robert D. Booker, killed in Tunisia in 1943, and Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker, killed in Baghdad in 2003.

Why did the Army cancel the Booker?

Officials cited weight growth, limited air-deployability and a shift of funds toward drones and other transformation priorities.