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2020 has definitely kicked off with a bang, quite literally, for our Defense Team.
Shortly after we returned from the holiday break, the team received notification of pre-award for the Robotic Combat Vehicle – Light (RCV-L). For those In the Know, you’ll recall that in late October we announced our partnership with QinetiQ North America (QNA) on the program. While the program is in the “pre-award” phase, we expect to be formally awarded the contract in mid-February. Once officially awarded our engineering and manufacturing teams will be busy designing and building a minimum of 5 new Expeditionary Modular Autonomous Vehicles (EMAVs) to meet the U.S Army’s stringent requirements. We will be sharing updates on the program as we receive them.
And just last week a group from our Defense Team supported the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in an advanced training exercise using our Trackless Moving Target-Vehicle (TMT-V) platforms. The event was held in Gila Bend, AZ in support of the 55th Rescue Squadron (RQS) Night Hawks.
This was TMT-V’s first aerial interdiction event, meaning Black Hawk helicopters firing from the air with 0.50 caliber rounds. It was also our Team’s first public presentation of an autonomy layer developed fully by Pratt Miller. This includes the path planning and path following software on-board the vehicle.
The team was in AZ for a week of live fire drills including 2 night operations. In the end, the team was able to meet what the USAF goal to improve their training regiment while our Team learned what it takes to conduct real training for real what will be real deployment. The USAF shot 20,000-22,000 rounds down range per day and our TMT-V’s drove back on their own.
Our very own Chief Robotics Engineer, Tom Waligora, had this to say after the event, “We had an incredible week. I saw first hand what truly makes Pratt Miller the incredible company it is and I am proud to be part of it. The team put in an 80+ hour week to make this a success. Each person at the event represented everything that makes Pratt Miller the absolute best.”
For more information on Pratt Miller Defense, please contact Stephen Potter at spotter@prattmiller.com
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