Army development shop testing launcher for small drones, eyes pathway for mass production
“The beauty of that is they can mass produce it but also give specifications about the [launched effects] going inside,” one DEVCOM official said.
Army eyeing new ground logistic robot dubbed MMET
“It's a very draft requirement [with] a lot of work to do on how to refine it, but we have PLS systems – the larger tactical resupply [tucks] – and you have the S-MET and there's really a gap between the two,” said Kevin Mills.
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Breaking the Pentagon’s new bottleneck of time
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
Anduril, Hanwha team for Army’s S-MET robot transport competition
Anduril will “serve as the prime contractor to deliver a modified, autonomy-ready Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) based on Hanwha’s proven Arion-SMET platform," according to an announcement.
Industry readies for Army’s robotic mule S-MET Increment II prototyping competition
"The baseline program, so far, [is] going well. It's a building block," Doug Bush, the head of Army acquisition, said. But for the next iteration, "What else can you do with that chassis? Weapons? Sensors?"
Army Robots: Two Contracts Forward, One Contract Back
Textron won the Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium and Qinetiq the RCV-Light, but General Dynamics’ award for the S-MET “mule” must be recompeted.
Army Buys 9,000 Mini-Drones, Rethinks Ground Robots
Ground robots still lag drones, but the Army thinks both technologies are ready to field to frontline units, just at different levels.
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Meeting Zero Trust goals while maintaining information dominance
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Forget The Terminator: Robotics For Logistics 1st, Combat 2nd
Don't think about the Terminator or Iron Man: Think about Sigourney Weaver's power loader lifting crates in Aliens.
Hunter Wolf: Killer Robot Golfcart
While the current Army requirement is purely for transport, manufacturer HDT has carefully designed in enough horsepower and electrical power to handle a host of heavy upgrades, including the machinegun shown here.
Armed Robots: US Lags Rhetoric, Russia
AUSA: American military leaders talk how artificial intelligence will change the face of war, but the unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) actually in development are much more modest and less lethal. They’re mostly small, mostly unarmed, and fall short not only of Pentagon visions of future warfare, but of the tank-like machines the Russians are experimenting with today. […]
Robotics: Qinetiq’s Titan Comes From MAARS
AUSA: Qinetiq’s aptly named Titan is a big robot, but don’t be afraid of it — yet. The company built it to compete for the Army’s Squad Maneuver Equipment Transport (S-MET) contract, so its main function is to haul backpacks, ammunition, water, and other heavy, bulky supplies for human infantry. That said, Qinetiq’s also looking at an […]
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The uncrewed revolution: MQ-9B and Gambit Series forge a path to regional air dominance
The MQ-9B and Gambit Series represent parallel capabilities that address global challenges for security head-on.
Polaris Trucks Carry Commandos & Casualties – And Can Be Robots
AUSA: Polaris is a small, tough company that makes small, tough trucks, favored by the Marines, Special Forces, and allied nations. They’re basically military-grade dune buggies, easy to transport by plane or helicopter and easy to customize to the mission. In this video, Polaris shows us one of their larger DAGOR vehicles configured to carry a full eight-man squad […]
Tiny Drones Win Over Army Grunts; Big Bots? Not So Much
Tiny drones, no bigger than your palm, were the big stars of an Army experiment in Hawaii, participants told Breaking Defense. Larger ground robots, however, struggled in the jungle. Staff Sergeant James Roe told me he was “blown away” by the PD-100 Black Hornet, a commercially available mini-drone used in PACMAN-I (Pacific Manned-Unmanned Initiative, part of […]