The US Army is in the process of developing requirements for a new unmanned ground transport vehicle, which will be larger than the robotic mule but smaller than a transport truck, according to a service official’s statement to Breaking Defense.
Kevin Mills, the deputy executive director for the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center, emphasized that while the requirements are still in the early stages and there is “a lot of work to do on how to define it,” the Army has identified a clear need that it intends to address.
“We have [Palletized Load System] PLS systems — the larger tactical resupply [trucks] — and you have the [Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport] SMET, and there’s really a gap between the two,” Mills explained. The SMET is a smaller, eight-wheeled robot designed to transport approximately 1,000 pounds of equipment and supplies on the battlefield, while the PLS, weighing over 50,000 pounds, serves as a large logistics truck.
To address this gap, the new initiative is being referred to as the Medium Multipurpose Equipment Transport, or MMET.
“Hence the medium” in the name, Mills added. “The hope would be to do some experimentation to help refine that requirement, but we are still very much in the early stages.”
Currently, the MMET requirements are being formulated by the Combined Arms Support Command’s Sustainment Center of Excellence, and several industry sources have indicated that they are awaiting further details about the future plan.
If the development of the medium transport progresses, it will join a range of other ground robots being developed by the Army, including the SMET robotic mule, the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), and the Ground Expeditionary Autonomy Retrofit Systems (GEARS).
Despite significant investments in ground autonomy, the Army faces several challenges, including the ability of these systems to navigate physical obstacles such as trees and buildings, as well as a general hesitance to deploy autonomous systems.
