The U.S. Army’s Robot Tanks Could Arrive Years Early

The U.S. Army future robotic army is taking shape faster, and better, than some officials expected.

“There’s a lot of excitement in industry, in the Army, and we’ve seen industry ahead of our timeline a little bit,” Brig. Gen. Richard Ross Coffman, director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team, told Breaking Defense reporter Sydney Freedberg, Jr. “We are adjusting our expectations.”

After reviewing the unmanned ground vehicle demonstrators that companies are developing for various Army requirements, Coffman told Freedberg he was impressed by the levels of autonomy and modularity.

“Overall, the robots are about two years more sophisticated than expected,” Freedberg wrote, citing Coffman. “Capabilities the service expected in 2023 are now potentially achievable in 2021.”

Between 2020 and 2023 the Army hopes to test three classes of UGV. The Remote Combat Vehicle Light would weigh around 10 tons and come armed with machine guns or rockets in the class of the Javelin anti-tank missile.

The RCV Medium would weigh around 12 tons and carry a 30-millimeter cannon or similar weapons, essentially matching the armament of a manned M-2 infantry fighting vehicle.

The RCV Heavy would be a robotic tank, albeit a lightweight one. Weighing around 20 tons, an RCV Heavy could pack a 120-millimeter main gun.

Several defense firms plan to debut their UGV designs at the Association of the U.S. Army trade show in Washington, D.C. in late October 2019. Vehicle-maker Textron revealed its own Ripsaw M5 UGV, a robotic light tank, in advance of the show.

The Ripsaw could meet the Army’s RCV Light and Medium requirements. The tracked, turreted vehicle “is intended to perform various missions including convoy protection, perimeter defense, surveillance, rescue, border patrol, crowd control and explosive ordnance disposal,” Textron stated.

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