WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army has renewed a competition to acquire unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) for light infantry after leaders canceled a previous award following a protest. Defense News reports. Continue reading original article
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3 March 2020 -- The service posted a new Request for Proposals (RFP) in February, allowing the four finalists in the original ground vehicle competition to recompete for a chance to build the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) ground robotic vehicle.
The General Dynamics Land Systems Multi-Utility Tactical Transport, or MUTT, won the original contract to build SMET at the end of October, but Textron, one of the other three competing companies, filed a protest claiming that GDLS had been allowed to change its vehicle significantly following a soldier evaluation.
Four companies were chosen from a larger pool in 2017 to compete to build the robotic vehicle: GDLS, a Textron offering from its subsidiary Howe & Howe, a team of Applied Research Associates and Polaris Defense, and HDT Expeditionary Systems. Each team built 20 platforms issued to infantry brigade combat teams for testing and analysis.
Related: Squad X uses unmanned vehicles to improve situational awareness for infantry
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
