Ground robots challenged, battery issues: Transformation in contact hits the Pacific

WASHINGTON — Attendees at last week’s AUSA conference in Washington couldn’t escape the phrase “transformation in contact,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s push to quickly test new equipment with units both inside the US and abroad to understand how that technology will operate in real world environments. 

One of the units George has tasked with testing the new kit out is the 2nd Light Brigade Combat Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, which recently wrapped up putting new gear through its paces in Pacific conditions to see how they did. The results, divisional leaders told reporters today, should give Army leadership plenty to think about.

“When we receive equipment from across the Army that is really tested in pristine environments…we’re seeing what it can do in the heat, in the salt, in the humidity, and at some cases, at altitude as they train on the Big Island of Hawaii,” said 25th Infantry Division’s Command Sgt. Maj. Shaun Curry. “Maybe it didn’t work the way we wanted to, but we have the capability of giving feedback to the Army, to development, to industry to try and make it work a little bit better.”

Out at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center in Hawaii those soldiers used the newer tech in different temperatures and terrain than the recent training rotation this summer with the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division in the woods and swamp at Ft. Johnson, La.

“Each one of these pieces of equipment requires the opportunity for soldiers to use in different terrains and environments to figure out how they can be employed, what limitations may be involved,” added Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, the 25th ID commander. “That’s exactly what a training environment like the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center provides.”

So what did they find out on the island? While Evans and Curry did not provide reporters with a comprehensive list of every finding, they offered a quick peek at initial takeaways from three key program areas: the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (S-MET), unmanned aerial systems and the Infantry Squad Vehicle.

The S-MET Increment 1 robotic mules were designed to help soldiers ferry their equipment around on the battlefield. And while officials inside the 2nd Brigade, 101st Division publicly praised the S-MET’s performance out in Louisiana’s relatively flat terrain, those from the 25th found that soldiers in the Pacific or in hillier terrain may need to use them differently.

At times, Evans explained, the steep ravines made it a “bit problematic” for soldiers to maneuver those robotic mules, versus when they were using them on flatter, less dense parcels of land. As a result, Curry said soldiers found different ways to use them, ways that could shape numbers and operations. 

“Bottom-up refinement has been a part of the entire transformation in contact, so it may have been one version to say the [S-MET] was going to work in this particular environment, but for us, I think it works best in all logistics patrols in moving large equipment further back…in the rear area,” Curry said. “[That] may be a little bit different from how originally envisioned, but that’s how we’re using it on the ground.”

Across the board, battery power emerged as another challenge for the soldiers looking to recharge everything from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to the additional communications equipment they had in tow. The hotter temperatures and humidity, Evans added, means less battery duration for systems, which is simply “acknowledging and understanding the limitations” based on the operating environment.

As for UAS on hand, soldiers had about 130 Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) aerial drones inside the formation, and those provided them with the ability to see further out than an organic rifle platoon. However, soldiers were “challenged” to get to higher ground and above the tree line in order to launch the smaller drones, Evans added.

As of the newer Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISV), the duo said the vehicles provided the formation with the ability to move at night and over different distances. Soldiers, Evans explained, could split up into different groups, hop into the ISVs, and then link back up at the appropriate place and time.

“The reason that’s important is based on the lessons that we are seeing out of out of the Ukraine, it is important to be extremely agile, while at the same time being very small, which in turn makes you less targetable, and then being able to come together as a fighting formation at a particular time, as a unique capability that the Infantry Squad Vehicle provides,” the two-star general added.

Evans and Curry are now passing off some of those observations to the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division — the third unit that is part from George’s transformation in contact experimentation — while also liaising back with the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.

Army leadership seems to have seen enough already to feel the transformation in contact concept is working out. At last week’s AUSA conference, George announced plans to expand his keystone inactive beyond infantry under a 2.0 push. The plan, he said, expands the bottom-up approach to two divisions, two Armored brigade combat teams, two Stryker brigade combat teams, and reserve and guard formations.

“At the end of [fiscal 2025] every warfighting function, including protection and sustainment, will be part of our transformation efforts,” George told an audience. “The technologies we will infuse in our formations are not years away, they are available now.”