Textron unveils autonomous ground vehicle designed for Marine Corps littoral units

Textron debuted the RIPSAW M1 demonstrator on the floor of the Modern Day Marine conference Tuesday, hoping to catch the service’s eye as it expands its unmanned vehicle portfolio.

“It's really an early investment in what we believe the Marines will need in the future,” Sara Willett, Textron’s vice president of programs, told Defense One. “It’s not replacing something, but augmenting the capability that they have, keeping those Marines out of harm's way and really providing additional effective range of both manned and unmanned platforms, is where we see it going.”

The M1 is part of Textron’s Modular Open Systems Approach for uncrewed ground vehicles, meaning operators can plug in a wide variety of payloads depending on mission needs. The company envisions pairing it with the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle or the Amphibious Combat Vehicle. 

“Some of the operational benefits we see it providing to the Marine Corps are enhanced situational awareness and lethality, keeping those Marines out of harm's way,” Willett said. “It can reduce risk to high-value crewed assets like the ARV, ACD by enabling better standoff operations.

The M1 can support modules like counter-unmanned systems, reconnaissance and surveillance sensors, and loitering munition launch platforms, she said.

That could include Damocles, a Textron search-and-strike drone with a small footprint, which will be loaded on the demonstrator at Modern Day Marine.

“So this is our unveiling of the pairing of that launched effect onto our M1 tech demonstrator, really to show the art of the possible to the Marine Corps by providing a kinetic capability, which gives the m1 and then, by extension, the crewed vehicles like the ARV or ACV, the organic ability to target a tank or item of interest,” Willett said.

Textron is hoping to grab the Corps’ attention with the new system, having put their own money into its development thus far.

“Once we're able to make the vehicle ready for deployment, we would certainly look to put these with a unit, you know, go through a campaign of learning, get some of that feedback, and then iterate on the vehicle to make it more of a fieldable platform outside of the technology demonstrator element of it right now.”