The U.S. Department of Defense recently commissioned American Rheinmetall and new energy truck company Harbinger to jointly develop a new generation of stealth, low-cost, expendable unmanned trucks to autonomously transport supplies in battlefield environments, thereby reducing the pressure on frontline soldiers from carrying heavy loads.
Although the contemporary military is a "logistics miracle" in terms of logistics system, with a large and efficient sea, air and land transportation network, there is always a "last mile" on the front line of combat that requires soldiers to rely on physical strength to cross the muddy and broken terrain to carry boxes of ammunition, fuel and supplies to the front line. In order to narrow this "transportation gap" and allow soldiers to get more rest time before combat, military decision-makers are increasingly turning their attention to robots and unmanned systems.
The concept of self-driving military trucks is not new. Related technologies have been developed for more than 20 years. However, in the past, they were mainly limited to trials of unmanned fleets accompanied by small-scale manned formations. What this cooperation will create is a new generation of unmanned cargo platforms that can operate independently in modern high-threat battlefield environments and undertake material transportation tasks.
According to reports, this vehicle family will promote research and development through a modernization contract: Rheinmetall of the United States is responsible for the integrated design, modular architecture, adaptable mission suite interface and mission system engineering of the combat vehicle; Harbinger will provide a wire-controlled hybrid chassis derived from commercial platforms and related electrification technologies. The goal of the project is to form an unmanned platform in a relatively short period of time that can be mass-produced on a large scale, at an acceptable price, and can be regarded as a "expendable asset" in wartime, and can be used for combat, logistics and continuous support tasks.
The early focus of the project will be on autonomous tactical wheeled vehicles that can enter theaters and perform missions, and will gradually evolve to next-generation unmanned combat platforms for "manned-unmanned collaboration" (MUM-T). In their final form, these vehicles will be completely different from trucks in the traditional sense. They will no longer have a cab or a mechanical steering mechanism, but will completely rely on a wire-by-wire system and autonomous driving control.
In terms of power, the autonomous truck will adopt a hybrid system and can switch to pure electric drive when necessary. This is not only due to energy saving or environmental protection considerations, but more importantly, the electric drive mode can significantly reduce noise and thermal characteristics, making the vehicle more difficult to detect by the enemy on the battlefield, improving stealth performance and survivability.
The project envisages that such unmanned vehicles can serve as "force multipliers" in a variety of high-risk scenarios: carrying out the forwarding mission of ammunition, fuel, rations and other supplies at a lower cost and with an affordable risk of loss. Even if the vehicle is lost under enemy fire, there is no need to risk personnel. Due to the use of a control-by-wire chassis and a high degree of autonomy, the system does not require any human driver to approach the front line when performing tasks, which can significantly reduce the risk of casualties.
When talking about this cooperation, Rheinmetall CEO Matthew Warnick said that what soldiers need is a "trustworthy robotic platform" and that its cost must be low enough to be deployed on a large scale in order to be truly effective on the battlefield. He said that Harbinger's drive-by-wire hybrid platform is one of the most "autonomous driving ready" commercial chassis in the United States to date. Combined with Rheinmetall's deep experience in military mission system integration, it will provide the Department of Defense with an "expendable, sovereign controllable, and rapidly scalable" unmanned platform solution that is "developed in the United States, manufactured in the United States, and ready for combat at any time."