American Rheinmetall Vehicles, Sterling Heights, MI, has won one of two contracts awarded in the U.S. Army’s Small Multi-Purpose Equipment Transport vehicle (S-MET) program.
American Rheinmetall Vehicles’ unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) will provide the Army with a versatile and resilient platform capable of efficiently transporting supplies and equipment over rugged terrain to support combat operations. American Rheinmetall Vehicles collaborated with lead partner Textron Systems on the proposal.
American Rheinmetall Vehicles will manufacture and deliver eight prototypes to the Army in 2025 for testing, evaluation, and to compete against the platform delivered by the second awardee before the Army downselects to a single platform and the program transitions to full scale production.
“American Rheinmetall Vehicles is honored with the Army’s selection and excited to deliver our S-MET platform which is particularly attractive due to its technological excellence, affordability, and reliability.”
Jim Schirmer, Senior Vice President and Deputy Managing Director of American Rheinmetall Vehicles
Textron Systems brings to the team more than three decades of experience designing, manufacturing, fielding, and supporting unmanned platforms across air, land and sea domains.
Textron Systems and its subsidiary, Howe & Howe, contribute extensive knowledge of robotics and systems integration to the S-MET Inc II program, having developed the mature, multi-mission capable RIPSAW® M5 and M3 ground robotics platforms for the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) programs. Leveraging the control architecture developed for Textron Systems’ RCV solutions, the team’s S-MET vehicle provides a commonality that enables operators to utilize a common interface for both the RCV and S-MET programs. This approach reduces the overall training burden and maximizes investments made.
Source: Rheinmetall news release