El US Marines (USMC) otorg\u00f3 un contrato por US$ 20 millones a la empresa tecnol\u00f3gica Overland AI, para la fabricaci\u00f3n de los 1ros veh\u00edculos terrestres completamente aut\u00f3nomos (AGV). Hasta ahora, la mayor\u00eda de los veh\u00edculos AGV eran operados mediante control remoto, con las limitaciones de ese tipo de sistemas. Los veh\u00edculos de Overland AI son completamente aut\u00f3nomos, aunque supervisados por humanos que intervienen si es necesario. Los AGV se incorporar\u00e1n dentro del Sistema Integrado de Defensa A\u00e9rea (MADIS), destinado a la Def Ae cercana (SHORAD) e inicialmente se emplear\u00e1n en tareas de reabastecimiento y transporte log\u00edstico. Overland AI entregar\u00e1 “m\u00e1s de una docena” de AGV, capaces de operar en todo tipo de terrenos, Seg\u00fan explic\u00f3 el CEO de Overland AI, la alta demanda de estas tecnolog\u00edas responde a las lecciones de conflictos actuales como la guerra en Ucrania, donde los veh\u00edculos no tripulados se han vuelto indispensables.<\/p>\n
As the Marine Corps continues its pursuit of ground-based air defense against hostile drones and low-flying enemy aircraft, it\u2019s making a milestone investment: a first-of-its-kind $20 million production contract for fully autonomous ground vehicles that can transport air defense systems deeper into the fight, with less human oversight.<\/p>\n
The contract was awarded this month to Overland AI, a Seattle-based company whose autonomy stack already powers military vehicles including General Dynamics\u2019 Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (S-MET); the Army\u2019s 18th Airborne Corps; Textron\u2019s Ripsaw M5; and used by DARPA, among others<\/p>\n
In a round table meeting with reporters on Monday, Overland co-founder and CEO Byron Boots said the Other Transaction Authority production agreement, awarded through the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, made the company the first ground autonomy provider to prime a production agreement with the U.S. military.<\/p>\n
\u201cGround autonomy matters now more than ever,\u201d Boots said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing the proliferation of uncrewed ground vehicles in conflicts like the one in Ukraine, and tech maturity is really there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding, \u201cWe\u2019re registering extremely high demand from U.S. operational units who want to incorporate this technology into their concepts of operation, so in the last six months or so we\u2019ve really seen the U.S. Army and Marine Corps lean forward into autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boots said Overland has participated in multiple major military exercises over the last year, providing the Army\u2019s 173rd Airborne Corps with autonomous vehicles for breaching and resupply in exercises including Agile Spirit and African Lion. The company, he said, also provided the 82nd Airborne with autonomous ground vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance during a six-month period around a training rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re registering extremely high demand from U.S. operational units who want to incorporate this technology into their concepts of operation,\u201d Boots said.<\/p>\n
Few details are available yet as to the model and capabilities of the systems Overland plans to provide to the Marine Corps. Announcements included images of the Overland-made ULTRA, which weighs 2,500 pounds and has a payload of about 1,000 pounds, but Boots would not confirm details.<\/p>\n
He did say that the Corps had contracted for \u201cabout a dozen\u201d of the vehicles, and said they would be delivered in about nine months.<\/p>\n
Boots cited specific uses for the autonomous vehicles including resupply and ISR, but also mentioned the possibility of integrating them into the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), a recently fielded mobile counter-drone weapon mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not intended to replace the JLTV,\u201d Boots said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to start by integrating the vehicle into the system, providing a resupply capability for the other vehicles, which are part of the system, and we may build on it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Marine Corps has emphasized the Pacific area of operations in its pursuit of new ground-based air defense systems, Boots said the vehicles Overland was providing were not theater-specific, and were capable of traversing \u201ca very wide range of different terrain.\u201d More details, he said, would be forthcoming closer to delivery of the vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uncrewed ground vehicle removes an operator from the proximity of whatever you\u2019re doing, and you can imagine how useful that will be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that we\u2019re really excited about here is the fact that we are at a point where the U.S. military is really seeing the utility of vehicles like this and has moved beyond experimentation and prototyping to production contracts, and we\u2019re excited to lead the way there,\u201d Boots concluded.<\/p>\n