Australian uncrewed ground vehicle joins U.S. Army trials in Hawaii

An uncrewed ground vehicle from Australian firm BIA5 was put through U.S. Army trials in Hawaii, where soldiers tested autonomous systems for evacuating wounded troops and moving supplies, the U.S. Army said.

The company’s ATR platform, fitted with a remotely controlled monitor and several cameras, was evaluated on November 7 ahead of a multi-mission casualty evacuation lane.

The tests took place at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows on Oahu during an Accelerated Capability Event run by the Army’s Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate, or G-TEAD. Commercial vendors compete across several lanes: multi-mission casualty evacuation, a 4,700-meter (2.9-mile) resupply run under contested conditions, and lanes where GPS is denied and electronic warfare is jamming signals. The Army said the goal is rapid sustainment for forces deployed forward for long periods.

BIA5 is based in Brisbane, Australia, and builds uncrewed ground vehicles for the military, police and emergency services. Its ATR, short for All Terrain Robot, is a family of vehicles designed for dangerous work such as bomb disposal, chemical and radiological hazards, rescue and tactical police operations, Reach Robotics said when it paired its manipulator arms with the platform.

The company also makes the larger Warfighter modular UGV, which can carry up to 330 kg (730 pounds), travel about 60 km (37 miles) and climb 45-degree slopes. BIA5 lists logistics, patient transfer and firefighting among its payloads, along with remote weapon stations and a sensor mast, and counts the Australian Defence Force and Australian special operations forces among its customers, a Queensland government profile of the company shows.

The Hawaii event, G-TEAD USARPAC ACE 27-01, is run with U.S. Army Pacific and focuses on supplying small, spread-out units across island chains, where long supply lines would be exposed to enemy fire. The Army asked for mature autonomous air delivery systems, uncrewed surface vessels and ground delivery systems, with up to 15 finalists and up to five winners receiving $150,000 each, the Army said in its call for vendors. Systems that perform well can stay with the unit for further testing and move toward fielding within 90 days.

Casualty evacuation is one of the jobs ground vehicles have taken on in Ukraine, where drones make it dangerous for medics to reach the wounded near the front line. Ukrainian crews now regularly send uncrewed vehicles to pull out injured soldiers and deliver supplies, and some have kept going under fire, as when a Ukrainian ground vehicle survived five FPV strikes and finished its mission.