Autonomy Key for Future Ready Army

The new work will begin immediately and take the Australian Army’s fleet of optionally crewed M113s to 20. The new project follows the conversion and trial of two optionally crewed M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers last year and another two earlier this year.
 
The completed vehicles have been used to showcase BAE Systems’ world leading autonomous technologies, which could have a potentially revolutionary impact on Australian Defence Force operations.
 
Autonomous technology will assist soldiers to respond in an accelerating warfare environment. It will increase their speed of initiative to outpace, out-manoeuvre and out-think conventional and unconventional threats.
 
As part of the knowledge transfer, the next three vehicles will be converted at BAE Systems’ Edinburgh Parks facility in South Australia, while the remaining M113s will be converted at the Army Joint Logistics facility at Bandiana, Victoria.
 
The fleet of vehicles will be used by the Army to conduct experiments to better understand the opportunities to employ autonomy on the battlefield and implement its recently released Robotics and Autonomous Systems Strategy.
 
BAE Systems Australia Chief Technology Officer Brad Yelland said:
“This project highlights our continued commitment to leading the development of new technologies.
 
“We are also collaborating on other landmark projects to advance autonomous capabilities such as Australia’s Loyal Wingman program, led by Boeing Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force.
 
“We are proud to partner on a world leading program that uses home-grown engineering expertise offering enormous potential for future export markets.
 
“The Defence Force of the future will rely on trusted autonomous systems to plan and coordinate operations, allow quick decision making and respond to unexpected or unplanned actions, and work to keep our service men and women out of harm’s way.”