At least two companies are showing off their unmanned launchers for the service, while a one-star general says he is closely following the USMC’s ROGUE Fires program.
The service has been conducting several R&D and procurement programs to prepare its vehicles to succeed in extreme weather conditions.
The jet-powered transport’s speed, survivability and multi-mission agility position it as a viable option to the C-130 for the US and NATO allies.
“Some of the implications are that we now have batteries or, hopefully we'll have batteries, that are not reliant on rare earth minerals. We don't have to rely on those coming from adversarial nations such as China," Jen Sovada, president of SandboxAQ’s Global Public Sector division, told Breaking Defense.
Although the service has awarded contracts to wind down leader-follower development and give the experimental trucks back to soldiers, a separate office has launched a prototyping competition.
“I would love to say that solving a problem is all that we should be doing at Army Futures Command, but it’s not,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Todd said. “We really have to be designing the Army of 2040 and beyond. In order to do that, you can’t wait on technology in 2040.”