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07 Dec 18. Warrior 2 completes unmanned firing trials. Lockheed Martin UK’s Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) demonstration vehicle (Warrior 2) completed its unmanned live firing trials at the Five Tips Firing Range in Lulworth, Dorset, at the end of November. The company’s WCSP director, Lee Fellows, told Jane’s on 5 December, “The vehicles are now out in the field successfully proving the enhanced capability and upgrades through live mobility and firing trials, demonstrating reliability to the customer.”
During the unmanned firing trials, WCSP demonstration vehicles covered more than 2,000 km and fired more than 150 rounds from the CT40 cased telescope weapon system. The completion of the unmanned firing trials means that it is now safe to move on to manned firing trials with the vehicle. The next step for the WCSP programme is manned live fire and reliability growth trials. Lockheed Martin UK told Jane’s that it had started training British soldiers to use the new capability ahead of the manned trials. “This is an absolutely critical capability for a modern army and I’m now looking forward to progressing to the next stage of the demonstration programme,” said Fellows. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
BATTLESPACE Comment: This announcement may explain the recent delay to WCSP announced in November and signals that the changes made to the Warrior turret by Lockheed Martin are still undergoing assessment to manned trials. The original CT40 Tracer turret was unmanned and thus did not have the obturation problems faced by the CT40 round which, due to the lack of a driving band, kicked chemicals back into the turret which corroded the Germanium sights and had obvious Health & Safety considerations. The access to the breach in the original CT40 LM turret was welded shut which in itself caused problems in solving constant misfire problems. How long it will take to complete the manned trails is unknown.
05 Dec 18. Endeavor unveils details of Scorpion robot design for US Army’s CRS-I. The US Army’s Common Robotic System-Individual (CRS-I) programme finalist Endeavor Robotics has unveiled the design details of its new multi-mission, ‘back-packable’ unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).
Known as Scorpion, the Endeavor robot weighs less than 25lb and features advanced mobility and manipulation capabilities. Endeavor is one of the two finalists chosen to share the $429m engineering, manufacturing and development contracts under the US Army’s CRS-I programme.
Under the final contract, scheduled to be awarded early next year, the selected firm will be required to produce up to 3,000 robots.
Endeavor Robotics CEO Sean Bielat said: “If selected for CRS-I, the Scorpion robot will be used by explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), infantry and other soldiers to help our military take on tomorrow’s challenges today.
“In the same way every army unit has long had a soldier designated to carry a radio on his or her back, fighting units will soon include a robot operator with a Scorpion-like UGV carried in their rucksack.”
To be built with an open-architecture design and lightweight composites, Scorpion will feature a universal controller with uPoint and MOCU-4 software, easy-to-use touchscreen, seven cameras, and a manipulator arm.
Scorpion’s arm is designed for improved reach and can extend 24in, lift up to 15lb, and rotate 360° while its cameras provide the operator with high-definition day and night situational awareness. The operator can repair the robot in the field using 3D-printed parts.
The rugged robot can be reconfigured to suit different mission requirements, with the ability to navigate rough terrain, climb stairs, and operate in wet or submerged environments.
Bielat added: “We’ve packed all our battle-tested expertise building unmanned vehicles into this innovative new system.
“Scorpion represents a powerful combination of smart technology and superior engineering.” (Source: army-technology.com)
01 Dec 18. The Army wants a self-directed combat vehicle to engage enemies. While the commercial world tiptoes toward the notion of a self-driving car, the military is charging forward with efforts to make autonomy a defining characteristic of the battlefield. Guided by artificial intelligence, the next-generation combat vehicle now in development will have a range of autonomous capabilities. Researchers at Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) foresee these capabilities as a driving force in future combat.
“Because it is autonomous, it can be out in front to find and engage the enemy while the soldiers remain safely in the rear,” said Osie David, chief engineer for CERDEC’s mission command capabilities division. “It can draw fire and shoot back while allowing soldiers to increase their standoff distance.”
Slated to come online in 2026, the next-gen combat vehicle won’t be entirely self-driving. Rather, it will likely include a combination of autonomous and human-operated systems. To realize this vision, though, researchers will have to overcome a number of technical hurdles.
Getting to autonomy
An autonomous system would need to have reliable access to an information network in order to receive commands and relay intel to human operators. CERDEC’s present work includes an effort to ensure such connections.
“We need resilient comms in really radical environments — urban, desert, trees and forests. All those require new and different types of signal technologies and communications protocols,” David said.
Developers also are thinking about the navigation. How would autonomous vehicles find their way in a combat environment in which adversaries could deny or degrade GPS signals?
“Our role in this is to provide assured localization,” said Dr. Adam Schofield, integration systems branch chief for the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) division.
In order for autonomous systems to navigate successfully, they’ve got to know where they are. If they rely solely on GPS, and that signal gets compromised, “that can severely degrade the mission and the operational effectiveness,” he said.
CERDEC, therefore, is developing ways to ensure that autonomous systems can find their way, using LIDAR, visual cues and a range of other detection mechanisms to supplement GPS. “We want to use all the sensors that are on there to support PNT,” Schofield said.
In one scenario, for example, the combat vehicle might turn to an unmanned air asset for ISR data in order to keep itself oriented. “As that UAV goes ahead, maybe it can get a better position fix in support of that autonomous vehicle,” he said.
Even as researchers work out the details around comms and navigation, they also are looking to advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, to further empower autonomy.
The AI edge
AI will likely be a critical component in any self-directed combat vehicle. While such vehicles will ultimately be under human control, they will also have some capacity to make decisions on their own, with AI as the software engine driving those decisions.
“AI is a critical enabler of autonomy,” said CERDEC AI expert Dr. Peter Schwartz. “If autonomy is the delegation of decision-making authority, in that case to a robotic system, you need some confidence that it is going to make the right decision, that it will behave in a way that you expect.”
AI can help systems to reach that level of certainty, but there’s still work to be done on this front. While the basics of machine learning are well-understood, the technology still requires further adaptation in order to fulfill a military-specific mission, the CERDEC experts said.
“AI isn’t always good at detecting military things,” David said. “It may be great at recognizing cats, because people post ms of pictures of cats on the internet, but there isn’t an equally large data set of images of adversaries hiding in bushes.”
As AI strategies evolve, military planners will be looking for techniques that enable the computer to differentiate objects and actions in a military-specific context. “We need special techniques and new data sets in order to train the AI to recognize these things in all different environments,” he said. “How do you identify an enemy tank and not confuse that with an ordinary tractor trailer? There has to be some refinement in that.”
Despite such technical hurdles, the CERDEC team expressed confidence that autonomy will in fact be a central feature of tomorrow’s ISR capability. They say the aim is create autonomous systems that can generate tactical information in support of war-fighter needs.
“As we are creating new paradigms of autonomy, we want to keep it soldier-centric,” David said. “There is filtering and analyzing involved so you don’t overwhelm the user with information, so you are just providing them with the critical information they need to make a decision.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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Millbrook, based in Bedfordshire, UK, makes a significant contribution to the quality and performance of military vehicles worldwide. Its specialist expertise is focussed in two distinct areas: test programmes to help armed services and their suppliers ensure that their vehicles and systems work as the specification requires; and design and build work to upgrade new or existing vehicles, evaluate vehicle capability and investigate in-service failures. Complementing these is driver and service training and a hospitality business that allows customers to use selected areas of Millbrook’s remarkable facilities for demonstrations and exhibitions.
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