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Estonian robotics company makes inroads with European armies
COLOGNE, Germany — Italy has become the latest country to show interest in Estonian robotics firm Milrem's THeMIS ground vehicle, as nations across Europe continue to actively pursue the unmanned systems.
A photo distributed by Milrem shows the vehicle at an Italian Army base near Rome last month with its cargo hold folded wide open and the contents — a small surveillance drone made by Estonia's Threod Systems — hovering above.
The THeMIS vehicle, which is short for Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System, is configurable for logistics, combat, reconnaissance or explosive ordnance disposal. In its basic version, it looks something like a cabriolet tank, roughly waist-high and piano-wide.
The various combat setups include weaponry such as guns, anti-tank missiles or launchers for suicide drones mounted on top, according to Milrem's website. The company doesn't make its own arms, a spokesman told Defense News, but rather integrates weapons from other manufacturers.
“Pulling the trigger is always done by the human,” the spokesman said when asked about the vehicle's level of autonomy, adding that all weapon add-ons by third-party vendors are expected to abide by that rule.
The demonstration in Italy follows a string of recent announcements by armed forces in Europe and elsewhere using the THeMIS platform for testing or operations.
This spring, the Estonian Defence Forces, or EDF, completed a yearlong deployment with the vehicle during the French-led Barkhane counterterrorism mission in Mali. The vehicle accompanied soldiers on patrol and ferried supplies around the base.
“We collected a lot of valuable data and feedback during the deployment and although EDF's experience with the THeMIS was positive, there is always room for improvement,” Kuldar Vaarsi, CEO of Milrem, was quoted as saying in a statement. “However, after this experience in Mali, we are confident that the THeMIS is more than capable of supporting operations in extremely hot climates."
The company previously said it was preparing to support another deployment with the country's forces at the end of 2020.
In September, the Netherlands signed a joined procurement agreement with the Estonian government to buy seven THeMIS vehicles from Milrem — four for the Royal Netherlands Army and three for Estonian forces.
For the Dutch, the purchase brings its inventory of the ground robots to six, with the two bought in 2019.
“So far, the THeMIS has successfully been used for research and experiments by operational units of the 13 Light Brigade in Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands and during a live fire exercise in Austria,” Lt. Col. Martijn Hadicke of the Royal Netherlands Army was quoted as saying in a company statement. “The addition of four extra THeMIS vehicles with a Remote Controlled Weapon System that is operated by a soldier provides us the opportunity to continue to develop concepts to enhance the combat power and decrease the risk for our soldiers.”
Along with the most recent outreach to Italian forces, Milrem rolled out what it dubs the Intelligent Systems Implementation Analysis and Assessment program, a three-step process designed to offer governments new capability ideas for their military robotic needs.
The program “provides armed forces support from initial planning to full implementation and post implementation analyses of intelligent and robotic systems with (NATO standard) concept development and experimentation methodologies,” according to Juri Pajuste, a retired Estonian military officer who now leads Milrem's defense research and development efforts.
The company is already sitting pretty when it comes to charting a course for robotic ground vehicles under the auspices of the European Union. Milrem has positioned its THeMIS vehicle as the reference platform in a multinational program aimed at developing a common design architecture underpinning future developments in the growth market.
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Army Buys 9,000 Mini-Drones, Rethinks Ground Robots
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: This summer, Army soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan with air support literally in the palm of their hands: the 1.16-ounce Black Hornetmini-drone. New ground robots are entering service too, next year — not to fight but to haul supplies, at least at first — but field tests have convinced the Army to issue these often-cumbersome mechanical mules to specialists and only loan them to frontline troops as needed. By contrast, soldiers are so consistently and unequivocally enthused about the mini-drones that the Army is buying 9,000 systems — each with two drones — over three years to issue to its smallest and historically most vulnerable units, nine-man infantry squads. The mini-drone and larger robots are all part of a wider revolution in the long-suffering infantry, a revolution sparked in large measure by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The Marines, Mattis's old service, have issued upgraded 5.56 mm rifles and are adding a specialized drone operator to every rifle squad. The Army is going much farther, developing new 6.8 mm rifles, high-tech targeting goggles, virtual-reality training, and, of course, robots. Now, none of these unmanned systems is truly autonomous, so they require a human to run them by remote control, which in turn requires a functioning battlefield network that hasn't been shut down by enemy jamming. The FLIR Black Hornet has a lot of automated functions and only flies short missions, so you don't need a soldier babysitting it all the time. Ground robots, however, require much more oversight, because they have to avoid rocks, bogs, tree stumps, and other obstacles that no unmanned air vehicle has to worry about and that artificial-vision software still struggles to spot. The Army is eager to improve the technology so that, instead of one soldier remote-controlling one robot, they can have one soldier overseeing a largely autonomous swarm. But even today's limited autonomy allows for big changes on the battlefield. The palmtop Black Hornet — dubbed Soldier-Borne Sensor (SBS) by the Army — is already in the hands (literally) of a brigade of the elite 82nd Airborne that's about to deploy to Afghanistan. The second unit scheduled to get the mini-drone, starting this fall, is the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, which has already served in Afghanistan. For the first time, a squad leader will have the ability to scout ahead by air before exposing human soldiers on the ground. The SBS has sensor options for both night and day, and it can fly about 20 minutes before needing to recharge. But the squad-level mini-drone is just the entry model. Larger units will get larger, more capable, but also more expensive and more maintenance-hungry drones. “Our vision is every echelon has unmanned aerial systems,” said Don Sando, civilian deputy to the commander of the Army's infantry and armor centerat Fort Benning, Ga. “The question is, how many?” While squads get the Black Hornet SBS, platoons will get the slightly larger Short-Range Reconnaissance (SRR) drone, Sando and other Army officials told reporters in a conference call last week. A series of tests this month, September, and January will whittle six SRR competitors down to one that will enter service in April 2020. The winner must weigh three pounds or less, fly for 30 minutes, and be able to “perch and stare,” landing in a vantage point overlooking a target area so it can keep watch without burning through its flight time. Companies will stick with the current RQ-11 Raven, which is still small enough that soldiers launch it by picking it up and throwing it. Battalions currently use the Raven as well, but the Army plans to develop a new Long-Range Reconnaissance drone for them to use. The LRR isn't an official program yet, however. Brigades currently have the RQ-7 Shadow, but that aging system needs a catapult to launch and a runway to land. It will be replaced by the Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (FTUAS), which takes off and lands vertically like a mini-helicopter, starting in 2021. Divisions currently use the Grey Eagle, a variant of the venerable Predator, but the Army is experimenting with potential Advanced UAS drones to replace it too. Ground Bots For Some The Army is also fielding ground robots, but these machines are still much clumsier and harder to work with than aerial drones, so they're being issued only to specialist units. That includes what was formerly called the SquadMultipurpose Equipment Transport but is now renamed the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport, because it's not going to belong to an individual squad. The SMET, by either name, is still a small unmanned ground vehicle, about the size of a golf cart, designed to trundle along with the foot troops, hauling supplies and gear like an old-fashioned pack mule. It must carry 1,000 pounds of supplies and gear over 60 miles in 72 hours, trundling along with foot troops, and provide three kilowatts of power to recharge batteries for night vision goggles, radios, and other electronics. Four competitors remain in contention: the Polaris MRZR, Howe & Howe Grizzly, HDT Wolf, and General Dynamics MUTT. “They're all viable candidates. They all met the standards of range, offloading power, silent watch capability, payload carrying,” Sando said. “Soldier feedback on all of them was very comparable with regard to what missions they're good for — and what conditions they're not appropriate for.” The Army plans to field the winner starting next year to selected training centers, combat brigades, and support companies — but not infantry squads. “We found out in the operational tech demonstration [that] it can best be supported now at the battalion level,” Sando said, which is the lowest echelon of an infantry unit to include technical specialists such as a heavy weapons company. The Army's objective is to incorporate the new technologies without adding personnel to take care of them. The issue with SMET is not just the maintenance the robots require — though that can be a large burden for a squad of nine — but also their limited mobility. “There are places where we ask our soldiers to go where nothing else can go... jungle terrain, steep embankments, water, and dense urban environments,” Sando said. “There are areas soldiers can walk and crawl and climb that we just couldn't put a vehicle of this size with them.” The SMET remains very useful for long marches with heavy loads, the bane of infantry soldiers increasingly overburdened by body armor, ammunition, and electronics. Being able to recharge gear from the robot instead of carrying several days' worth of batteries for every item of equipment is itself a significant reduction in weight. Future SMET variants, Sando said, might carry long-range sensors, communications relays, or even weapons. But when foot troops have to go places you can only go on foot, they need to be able to leave the robot vehicles behind and let someone else take care of them. By contrast, Sando said, “the Soldier-Borne Sensor is smaller than a pack of cigarettes, [so] I can use it when I need it, I can put it back.” https://breakingdefense.com/2019/06/army-buys-9000-mini-drones-for-squads-rethinks-ground-robots-for-2020/