Ground drone for the US Army: American Rheinmetall Vehicles wins award in S-MET programme

In the US Army's Small Multi-Purpose Equipment Transport Vehicle (S-MET) project, one of two contracts has gone to American Rheinmetall Vehicles. The company, based in Sterling Heights, Virginia, is supplying a ground drone.

The uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) is to serve the US Army as a versatile and robust platform that efficiently carries supplies and equipment through rough terrain, thereby supporting combat operations. American Rheinmetall Vehicles' lead partner on the project was Textron Systems.

American Rheinmetall Vehicles will build eight prototypes in 2025 and hand them over to the US Army. There they will undergo testing and evaluation alongside another company's platform. Only then will the Army select one of the systems and launch series production.

Ground drone based on the Mission Master family

Rheinmetall has already gained extensive development experience with unmanned ground vehicles. One example is the Mission Master family: a range of modular, autonomous platforms for different missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, counter-UAS (cUAS) and logistic support.

For its S-MET solution, American Rheinmetall Vehicles draws on the advances made with the unmanned technology of the Mission Master vehicles. The result is to be a UGV tailored precisely to the specific requirements of the US Army's S-MET programme. It also incorporates many mature commercial components already in the US Army inventory or in the commercial ATV sector (ATV: all-terrain vehicle) – which lowers costs and increases reliability. The composite structure and materials used reduce electromagnetic compatibility risks.

Jim Schirmer, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager of American Rheinmetall Vehicles, said: “American Rheinmetall Vehicles is honoured by the Army's decision and looks forward to delivering the S-MET platform, which is particularly attractive due to its technological excellence, affordability and reliability”.

Textron Systems as partner

Textron Systems brings more than three decades of experience to the team – in the development, manufacture, deployment and support of unmanned platforms for air, land and sea. For the Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) programmes, the company developed the mature, multi-mission Ripsaw M5 and M3 ground robotic platforms. Because the team's S-MET vehicle uses the control architecture Textron Systems developed for its RCV solutions, operators can use a common interface for both programmes, RCV and S-MET. This reduces the overall training burden and makes the best use of both programme offices' investments.