Gaining Ground: Strategy Lays Out Army Plan for Moving Forward with Unmanned Ground Vehicles

• Published in: Military Technology Vol. 41; no. 10; p. 39
• Main Author: Tuttle, Rich
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bonn Monch Publications 01.10.2017
• Subjects: Autonomous vehicles; Baffles; Explosive devices; Explosives detection; Military technology; Missions; Reliability; Survivability; Unmanned ground vehicles; United States > US
• ISSN: 0722-3226

Tuttle details the technical and doctrinal challenges of US' new generation of military unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). The current generation of about 7,000 UGVs of various types has proven its worth in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the robots have been used in more than 125,000 missions to identify objects, clear routes, and locate and defuse improvised explosive devices. But, the Pentagon says, the rapid fielding and proliferation of UGVs that has made them so valuable has also resulted in configuration headaches--UGVs don't talk to each other, reliability and survivability could be better, sensing is deficient, the ability to deal with chemical, biological and other threats is lacking, and detection of explosives must be improved. Meanwhile, the military services are deciding how they will coordinate to fight future baffles in multiple domains.