Army Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group conducted two weeks of hands-on experimentation with Project Origin unmanned systems at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Including Special Operations Forces into technology assessments provides more in-depth understanding of what is needed to mature unmanned systems for the Army’s Operating Force. (Jerome Aliotta/US Army)
SOFIC 2022: A recent experiment with Army special operations forces used robotic vehicles to tackle more dangerous aspects of missions as the service works to further refine how soldiers and robots will fight alongside each other in the future.
Green Berets with the 1st Special Forces Group used the US Army’s Project Origin robotic technology demonstrator vehicle to make initial contact with adversaries and mask operators’ movements towards the objective during a two-week experiment in February at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
While the experiment helped to inform requirements for the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), it also allowed the special operations community to learn more about how SOF personnel would fight alongside unmanned ground vehicles.
“Special forces guys are doing special forces things and thinking for the future of ‘how do we integrate these robots into our formations in the future,’ Maj. Daniel Groller, the military deputy for the robotic combat vehicle development team at the at the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), told Breaking Defense in an interview ahead of the Special Operations Industry Conference.
The GVSC manages the Project Origin robotic combat vehicle surrogate. In a series of experiments over two weeks, soldiers with the 1st Special Forces group used the Project Origin vehicle in long-range reconnaissance, concealment, electronic warfare and autonomous resupply operations. The RCV surrogates were equipped with M240 and M2 machine guns and the MK19 automatic grenade launcher.
Todd Willert, program manager for Project Origin at the GVSC, said that one “unique” aspect of the experiment was that the Green Berets had a “tighter integration” of the robotic platform in the formation than soldiers in previous experiments. In practice, that means that RCV surrogate took on more dangerous missions, such as making the initial contact with the objective and clearing it before special operators entered the area. Two operators — a driver and a gunner — remotely guided the robot toward the objective.
“The operator[s] stayed back … with their vehicles [and] drove the robot forward, and the soldiers got online [and] followed the robots forward to the objective,” Willert said. Then, “the robot swept the objective, you know, cleared outside of the buildings and then the SF soldiers came in, cleared all the buildings, and then they did some live shooting.”
In one experiment, once the building was secured, two sniper teams identified targets downrange and passed the target locations to the robots, which then fired on them. It’s all part of keeping soldiers’ locations concealed, part of the broader goal of using robots to take soldiers out of harms way.
“Soldiers can engage targets all day long,” Willert said. “But as soon as you shoot at a target, you’re creating the signature. Somebody knows that you shot [because] there’s going to be a flash or muzzle flash from where you’re shooting. … Now the signature is on the robot side. Again, you’re putting space between danger and yourself.”
Special operations forces, which undertake extremely complex and challenging missions, are highly trained and have a specific way they conduct operations. Because of this, Willert said it’s important to understand how robots and special forces can work together — a concept known as manned-unmanned teaming — and refine those lessons to prepare for battlefield operations with mature robot technology.
“Special Forces have a very rigid way of how they do things. That’s why they’re so good. They do things in a particular manner,” Willert said. “Now you throw in a robotic platform, they’re like, you know, we’re not really sure where we put this in the formation or how we utilize it.”
The Army is learning a handful of lessons about how robots in combat affect soldiers on the battlefield. The service did its first force-on-force training rotation that included a robot last fall at Fort Polk with the 101st Airborne Division. During that scrimmage, the Project Origin vehicle primarily undertook defense operations, such as blocking an helicopter landing zone and obstructing an intersection, or reconnaissance missions.
“RCVs are good for the extra dangerous and the mundane tasks,” Grolller said.
The RCV surrogate vehicle will head to Germany later this year for soldier operational experiments at the Joint Multi-National Readiness Center. Willert said the Army will conduct both offensive and defense electronic warfare missions with unmanned systems, complete force-on-force operations using the RCV surrogate to better refine TTPs, undergo mobility terrain testing to ensure the vehicle can operate European terrain and carry out live fire operations.
“Our goal right now is getting tight manned-unmanned teaming connection, figuring out those tactics, techniques and procedures,” Willert said.,
