DARPA brings a tank drone to the battlefield
DARPA, the US Department of Defense Research, announced that its Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program has passed another major milestone, testing its largest and most aggressive land-based drone variant. This is the RACER Heavy Platform or RHP model.
A 12-ton beast of a machine, the largest RACER autonomous ground vehicle also has some rather disturbing green LEDs that resemble eyes. In reality, these green LEDs serve to indicate that the drone is driving autonomously.
The green-eyed monster drone is 6.1 meters long, with sled tracks and based on Textron's highly successful M5 RIPSAW chassis. The US Army already uses them extensively for various logistical and tactical roles. Here is a presentation video
DARPA explains that the 12-ton RACER was designed to complement and support other members of the RACER vehicle (RFV) fleet. The other members of the family are smaller, however, weighing 2 tons and measuring a measly 3.35 meters.
The RACER RFV drone
“Having two radically different vehicle types helps us progress towards RACER's goal of platform-agnostic autonomy in complex, mission-relevant off-road environments that are significantly more unpredictable than on-road conditions,” explained Stuart Young , responsible for the RACER program.
The larger RACER was jointly developed by the University of Washington and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its latest test, which appears to have been successful, took place at a Texas range in late 2023. The test involved two teams that had no prior experience in the test area. This was designed to ensure that the test was as realistic as possible for real-world use.
The Racer RHP
The goal was to see how these vehicles could perform in a foreign environment.
“Using completely unoccupied RFVs, RACER demonstrated autonomous movement within a 15-square-mile area of terrain that included highly varied ground vegetation cover, trees, bushes, rocks, slopes, obstructed ditches, and stream crossings , typical of the varied and complex terrain of Texas, familiar to armored vehicle maneuvers,” DARPA explained in its official press release.
The tests also included nighttime operation, which, according to DARPA, revealed that the new drone is just as functional as during daylight hours.
It's not the only drone
The RIPSAW M5 becomes the basis of a real family of drones, including autonomous ones, which can also be armed. These are silent vehicles, if necessary, because they have the Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium (RCV-M). They offer exciting opportunities for the Army, including protecting convoys and conducting rescue missions.
They can also be used for creating a perimeter defense, surveillance, border patrolling, and crowd control. The RIPSAW can also be modified for explosive ordnance disposal. It can also be used in combat with a 25 mm autocannon
DARPA has been trying to develop autonomous vehicles since the early 1980s, most notably through an initiative called the Strategic Computing Initiative. However, the technology has come a long way since then, especially if the latest RACER tests are any example.
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The article DARPA brings a tank drone to the battlefield comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/darpa-porta-sul-campo-di-battaglia-drone-carro-armato-il-racer-rhp/ on Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:39:25 +0000.