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.
Could mini-drones and robot trucks, coordinating via 5G, replace vulnerable manned convoys?
Standoff capability means warfighters stay connected and remain remotely located in a safer environment while making it harder for adversaries to target them.
The “warfighter localization sensor” from Robotic Research pinpoints your location, and you comrades’, without relying on satellite uplinks or static beacons. The secret’s in the network.
The Army is ready for unmanned vehicles but not yet for a completely unmanned convoy. The 2020 iteration is called Expedient Leader-Follower because the Army still wants a human soldier driving the lead vehicle, with up to nine autonomous trucks following in its trail. But Oshkosh and Robotic Research told me they could take the humans out altogether, if the Army wanted.