{"id":29921,"date":"2020-09-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/21\/laying-the-groundwork-us-army-unveils-rough-plan-to-formalize-robotic-combat-vehicles-effort\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:26:50","slug":"laying-the-groundwork-us-army-unveils-rough-plan-to-formalize-robotic-combat-vehicles-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/09\/21\/laying-the-groundwork-us-army-unveils-rough-plan-to-formalize-robotic-combat-vehicles-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Laying the groundwork: US Army unveils rough plan to formalize robotic combat vehicles effort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army is preparing to enter into programs of record for light- and medium-class robotic combat vehicles<\/a> in a few years, with plans to award separate contracts for a lead systems integrator for each program, according to the service\u2019s robotic combat vehicles product manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service wants to field a light, medium and heavy robotic combat vehicle, <\/a>and it is experimenting with technology and how the vehicles might fit into future formations through the Army\u2019s Next-Generation Combat Vehicle modernization office. Developing NGCV capability is the second-highest priority for the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan is to make a decision to move the Army\u2019s RCV-Light out of technical maturation and into the engineering and manufacturing development phase in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The service would do the same with the RCV-Medium program in FY24, Lt. Col. Chris Orlowski said Sept. 10 during a conference hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orlowski noted that the potential RCV-Heavy program of record would fall behind the start of the medium and light programs by \u201ca pretty significant margin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same conference during a separate keynote presentation, Bruce Jette, the Army\u2019s acquisition chief, said decisions were made that \u201cput pieces in place that will establish a formal program for robotic systems with the [program manager], not just following the tech base but in fact being the centerpiece for building light and medium systems inside of an architecture that fits within the entire operational vehicle architecture. In fact, it will leap over into the aircraft as well. It will be everything from driving to operations of the vehicle to visual sensing to probably a broader array of technical capabilities that you may not have even thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army plans to award a contract to a lead systems integrator that will combine the RCV\u2019s control station, network, platform, software and payloads, Orlowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anticipated government-furnished equipment for the programs would include autonomy software, radios, war-fighter machine interface software, aided target recognition software and lethality payloads \u201cminus the turret,\u201d according to Orlowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other potential government-furnished equipment could be a tethered drone; assured position, navigation and timing technology; hostile fire detection; and other vehicle protection systems, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Army ventures into developing robotic vehicles that don\u2019t just do the dull, dirty and dangerous work, \u201cthe biggest thing is going to be software development, improving autonomous and automation software,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeleoperation is nice; it works OK if you\u2019ve got the right radios and the right environments, but long term, when those environments become tested, I think teleoperation will be less viable and we will have to really push the automation and autonomy on these platforms. But also, that being said, there is always going to have to be some soldier interaction with the platforms. How do we improve that interaction for the soldiers, reducing that cognitive burden?” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know everybody likes cool, big, awesome robots, but it\u2019s really a software thing that is going to make these things go, so anything that is kind of tied to software I think is a critical technology in my view,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\t