QinetiQ North America and Pratt and Miller Defense Announce Robotic Combat Vehicle Partnership

via Press Release.

- QinetiQ North America (QNA) and Pratt and Miller Defense are pleased to announce their partnership on the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) program at the 2019 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

QNA is a leading provider of unmanned systems for the defense market with over 20 years of experience helping the US Military develop and field advanced, safety-critical, robotic solutions. Currently supporting the US Army with robotic systems from 20 pounds to 20 tons, QNA is focused on modular interoperable solutions that ensure the systems fielded today are ready for tomorrow's threats.

QNA and Pratt & Miller will submit a variant of the Expeditionary Modular Autonomous Vehicle (EMAV) tailored to the Robotic Combat Vehicle program's specific requirements. The Robotic Combat Vehicle submission will leverage QNA's modular open architecture unmanned ground vehicle control systems integrated with Pratt & Miller's advanced mobility platform. The resulting system is a robust non-developmental solution demonstrated to fulfill the Government's required attributes. The RCV base platform has been proven through direct warfighter experimentation to be agile, powerful, and highly reliable.

"QinetiQ North America has focused on fielding advanced technical solutions to help our military counter emerging threats for over 25 years," stated QNA's President Jeff Yorsz. "We are excited to team with a company that has equal passion of providing groundbreaking real-world solutions to our warfighters."

Pratt & Miller Defense specializes in the development and manufacturing of advanced vehicles and systems for the demanding requirements of the military. Matt Carroll, Pratt & Miller CEO expressed his support of the team "Our combined cultures of innovation and expertise in supporting the warfighter will provide the US Army with a mature world class solution for the RCV program."

The RCV configuration of EMAV will be displayed at AUSA 2019 in Washington, D.C., October 14-16.

I have no problem with this vehicle.

So don't take this statement as being a slam against QinetiQ NA in anyway.

I'm thinking about the concept of combat armored vehicles.

Are we putting the cart in front of the horse here?

I still remember the Terramax.

It was supposed to fill in for convoy work but got shelved.  Now they're not even going for a basic logistics role but pushing forward into combat vehicles?

Are robots that smart?

I keep seeing leap ahead tech instead of doing the NASA thing of working in building blocks.  Ya know the old crawl, walk, run thing.

Are we getting industry spun up on something that won't be bought?  Are we seeing effort being wasted on concepts that will never be purchased (at least not within the next 5 years)?

I hope not but I think so.