|
The next generation of Army combat vehicles will need to include
manned, unmanned and optionally manned variants that include the
most advanced protection, mobility, lethality and power generation
capabilities to ensure that our Soldiers can survive first contact
and defeat any adversary.
The modern battlefield has combined the air, land, sea,
space, cyber and information battlespace into blended
domains as simultaneous operations must be conducted over a
dispersed battlefield. This requires the Army to design,
equip and train forces capable of defeating adversaries with
advanced capabilities to prevail in complex and multidomain
environments. While the Army’s current fleet of ground
vehicles maintains a tactical overmatch or close parity with
our adversaries, additional upgrades are proving challenging
to these platforms given their current size, weight and
power limitations. The ability to add evolving technologies
to existing ground vehicles is rapidly diminishing as the
weight-bearing capability, power generation and available
footprint to support these technologies has exceeded the
original design.
|
The Army is looking to leverage investments in high-energy laser
applications to develop vehicle platforms with improved operational
capabilities at significantly smaller sizes, offering defense
capabilities against unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets, artillery
and mortars. (U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center Courtesy Image -
January 2018)
|
Our adversaries have paid careful attention to the last decade
and a half of combat operations conducted by U.S. forces and
modified their tactics, techniques and procedures to hide from our
strengths and exploit our vulnerabilities. When U.S. forces deploy,
the enemy usually is operating from a “home field” advantage or is
at least in position and prepared for conflict. Adversaries are well
aware of the disadvantages of giving U.S. forces the time to deploy,
position and amass firepower in an uncontested environment before
any potential engagement. They understand that letting U.S. forces
gain superiority in any domain can raise their likelihood of failure
immensely.
Survivability in the future battlespace will be
challenging. Our near-peer adversaries have combined enhanced
long-range sensors with the effects from long-range precision fires.
This is forcing a careful review of the requirements for future
combat vehicles. Army leadership recognizes that the Army must
develop the critical enabling technologies to support the next
generation of combat vehicles. Increased capabilities, including
advanced mobility, lethality and power generation, are required to
operate smartly in the current operational environment.
Additionally, vehicle survivability can be greatly increased with
intelligent sensors that are integrated with the hardware, software
and effectors to create an overarching, layered system of passive
and active self-defense measures. Examples include protective
systems that could prevent an adversary weapon system from engaging
a U.S. platform or identify an incoming threat and electronically
render it ineffective or physically engage to defeat its lethal
mechanisms. These overlapping and multiaspect methodologies would
sequentially complement each other to defeat adversarial
capabilities and protect friendly forces.
|
Surviving first contact in the dispersed battlespace of the
future will require a range of ground and air systems to extend the
maneuver force’s situational awareness, increase survivability and
enhance Soldiers’ lethality. (U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center
Courtesy Image - January 2018)
|
To expand its combat capability, the Army is exploring the use of
unmanned vehicles teamed with manned control vehicles to support a
yet-to-be defined role in multidomain operations. Surviving first
contact and dominating in the dispersed battlespace will require the
integration of a range of ground and air systems: semiautonomous,
fully autonomous, optionally manned, tethered and untethered.
Autonomous unmanned systems will have the maneuverability to travel
over complex terrain and environments with greater capabilities than
their manned counterparts. These systems will extend the reach of
U.S. forces and will allow them to initiate contact with their
adversaries under the most favorable conditions. These platforms
will extend the maneuver force’s understanding of the combat
environment, increase survivability and extend lethality. Autonomous
systems also will perform some of the dangerous, physically
demanding and mundane tasks required of Soldiers.
Areas of
specific focus supporting the Army’s next generation ground vehicles
include:
Sensors. Improved sensors will provide increased
capability to detect, recognize, identify and locate entities
rapidly and precisely, at extended distances and with greater image
resolution.
Directed energy and energetics. The Army is
investing to leverage the effects of directed energy in lethal,
nonlethal and protection applications that can lead to reduced
logistics and vehicle platforms that have significantly improved
operational capabilities at significantly smaller sizes. For
example, Army investments in high-energy laser applications are
leading to effective defense capabilities against airborne threats,
including unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets, artillery and mortars.
Power generation and management. The Army is investing in
vehicle platforms that require less fuel yet have greater
operational range and generate more power, improving mobility,
survivability and lethality.
Advanced armor materiel
solutions. Army science and technology is investing in lighter and
more capable armors that can, when augmented with other layers of
defense capabilities discussed in this article, improve
survivability while enhancing operational combat effective range.
Vehicle protection suites. The Army is making investments in
active and passive protection systems that allow for reduced armor
requirements (weight), enable pre-shot understanding of the threat
and post-shot protection from incoming threats. Vehicle protection
applications that optimize passive armor and active protection
systems allow for a decrease in vehicle size, thus improving
deployability, mobility and protection.
|
To develop and field the next generation of combat vehicles, the
Army needs to overcome the current problem: Adding new capabilities
and systems is complicated by the weight-bearing and
power-generation constraints of the original platforms. (U.S. Army
Acquisition Support Center Courtesy Image - January 2018)
|
Maneuver robotics and autonomous systems. Investments in
semiautonomous, fully autonomous, optionally manned,
tethered and untethered ground and air systems will expand
the next generation ground vehicle’s understanding of the
operational environment, increase survivability and
potentially extend lethality.
Army leadership faces
profound challenges in developing its next- generation
combat vehicle to protect Soldiers on the modern multidomain
battlefield. Soldiers need the capability and skill to
deploy rapidly, close with and destroy adversaries
throughout the battlespace. The Army’s goal is to focus its
vehicle technology investments to develop a generation of
vehicles that are not only more lethal and survivable than
current combat platforms but much smaller, lighter, more
fuel-efficient and intelligently interconnected for shared
battlespace awareness. Additional articles in the January -
March 2018 issue of Army AL&T magazine highlight the Army’s
development of Robotic Wingman, its first armed and unmanned
ground vehicle, and the potential applications of artificial
intelligence illustrate the critical enabling technologies
the Army is pursuing to increase Soldiers’ operational
capabilities and survivability. Army leadership is fully
engaged to provide Soldiers with the best possible
capabilities for future combat operations.
By Andy Steel, U.S. Army Official
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2018
Author Bio... Andy Steel is the deputy director for the
Ground Maneuver portfolio in the Office of the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology. He holds an M.S.
in national strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a
bachelor’s degree in medical sciences from The Pennsylvania State
University. He is Level I certified in acquisition.
Comment on this article |
