While the US Army has decades of experience with small robots in roles such as EOD, as the Robotic Combat Vehicle programme ramps up it now needs to ensure soldiers are in a position to operate and fight alongside large armed UGVs as well as train the systems’ own algorithms to function in a frontline environment.

After years of laboratory and field experimentation, as well as some operational experience, with different robotic platforms, the US Army is advancing the analysis process known as DOTMLPF-P (Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, Facilities, and Policy) for its future Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCV)... Continues below

This analysis article originally appeared in July's Decisive Edge Military Training Newsletter.

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One relatively new aspect of the process involves RCV training.

Service representatives were quick to acknowledge that the army has been experimenting with robotic vehicles for decades, with most recent programmes of record involving smaller systems that were focused on explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) missions.

It is only in the past decade that the service has started to work with larger UGVs such as the Autonomous Tactical Vehicle System (ATV-S), Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) and its first combat platform in the RCV programme.

Throughout those years, the army has conducted multiple soldier touch points, soldier operational experiments and pilots that all involved operator training and proficiency evaluations prior to troops operating the robotic vehicles safely. This training ranged from safety release level for specific test or experimental events to full operator training given by certified army instructors.

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In September 2023, the army awarded RCV platform prototype agreements to McQ, Textron Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and Oshkosh Defense. Under those contracts, the four awardees are each building and delivering two platform prototypes by August this year in support of advanced testing.

Longer-range plans project ‘an RCV outcome decision’ in February 2027, when the army could make a decision on production and move out to fielding by 2028. The ‘RCV era’ is now rapidly approaching.

Meanwhile, recent experimentation and training has focused on RCV – Light (RCV(L)) ‘surrogate’ platforms.

The next major step is already under way at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California. Known as ‘Pilot 24’, the event will run through September, involving use of the surrogate platforms by 2-11 Armored Cavalry Regiment (‘Blackhorse’), the traditional ‘opposing force’ (OPFOR) at NTC, as well as additional soldiers from Army Forces Command who will operate the robots.

It is anticipated that the event, which will span two force-on-force NTC rotations by different Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCTs), will provide the army with additional insight on how the OPFOR could use RCV surrogates against ‘blue forces,’ but also how those blue forces might use the RCVs against the OPFOR.

Planners observe that the experiment will support the army’s need to answer technical and operational learning objectives, ultimately continuing to inform DOTMLPF-P implications of fielding robotic and autonomous system formation, supported by collection of early soldier feedback to inform programme capability development priorities.

‘During the Pilot 24 rotations the army is looking to receive data via operational feedback across the DOTMLPF-P spectrum,’ explained one service representative. ‘This data will build on lessons learned from previous soldier operational experiments or pilots to continue to inform force design, use cases, refine tactical employment concepts, HMI [human-machine integration] capabilities in a formation and many more. The army will also look to answer critical questions, for example, how does adding HMI to an armoured formation affect ABCT capability gaps during security, defence and reconnaissance operations?’

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Asked about the implications for ‘training the robots’, they replied: ‘Training our robots must be accomplished through both simulation and real-life experience just like a soldier would. The robotic perception or software systems have the benefit of running almost 24/7 without food or water in a DevSecOps [development, security and operations] environment.

‘These environments will be training the algorithms how to perceive surroundings, make deterministic and non-deterministic decisions and classify/label what it sees. These robots will then ‘rinse and repeat’ in the real world as they operate across terrain, receive commands, and interact in full mission scenarios. Persistent and continuous learning is the name of the game for the robotic vehicles.’

Additionally, they noted that operator training for the first rotation of Pilot 24 covers both mobility and lethality for the RCV platforms.

‘Training consisted of miles of movement using a mixture of automated convoy and tele-operation control as well as urban area orientation/terrain walk and extended-range network operations. The operators also will complete crew proficiency evaluations as well as gunnery,’ they said.

They added that after completion of Pilot 24 in late September the army will take all lessons learned and soldier feedback to continue to inform the DOTMLPF-P spectrum and incorporate, if necessary, requirements into acquisitions, with future experimentation focus likely shifting to the army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) and the larger Human Machine Integration – Formation (HMI-F) initiatives.

Other articles in this newsletter:

Cause for concern – analysing China’s expanding international training partnerships

USAF to face F-22 training gap after divesting part of fleet

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