American Rheinmetall Vehicles and Rheinmetall Canada successfully conducted a live-fire capability demonstration for the US Marine Corps (USMC) in Fort Clinton, Ohio to highlight the capabilities of the Rheinmetall Mission Master SP autonomous, unmanned ground vehicle (A-UGV) paired with the Fieldranger Remotely Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS).

The Rheinmetall Mission Master is a family of A-UGVs designed to support military troops in dangerous missions, difficult terrain, and hostile weather conditions. This armed variant of the Rheinmetall Mission Master SP provides a variety of remote-operated capabilities including armed reconnaisance, sentry over watch, fire support, flank security, screening capability, and more.

Having completed numerous test and evaluation events with the Mission Master SP, American Rheinmetall Vehicles continues to deliver advancements in A-UGV systems to the USMC. It first made deliveries to the USMC in early 2023, and several follow-on orders for A-UGVs are proceeding in 2024.

Mission Master SPs furnished by American Rheinmetall Vehicles were also extensively tested by the USMC during the Talisman Sabre Exercise (TS23) in Queensland, Australia, in summer 2023 and as part of the Apollo Shield exercise at Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms, California, in fall 2023, both in support of Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) evaluations.

The Mission Master SPs’ participation supported MCWL’s one year, crawl-walk-run, bilateral effort to test equipment capabilities and evaluate tactics, techniques, and procedures of Infantry squads equipped with A-UGVs. Tasks the Mission Master SP A-UGVs took on during the exercises included casualty evacuations (CASEVAC), resupply missions, fully autonomous road marches reaching ranges up to 50 kilometers, and operating in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) environments. Feedback from the Marines and their Commanders drove A-UGV design modifications and solidified the benefits of A-UGVs among Marines.

In December 2023, American Rheinmetall Vehicles received an order to manufacture and deliver six Mission Master SPs which are slated for delivery to III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) to support further training and evaluation. Four of the Mission Master SPs will support 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, who will be the first unit to conduct pre-deployment work-ups and deploy with the A-UGVs.

Each of Rheinmetall’s Mission Master SP A-UGVs uses the Rheinmetall PATH autonomy kit (A-kit). The A-kit is a proprietary robotic control software suite that, due to its platform-agnostic design, can seamlessly integrate autonomous capabilities into existing vehicle fleets.

It can be rapidly added onto existing legacy vehicles or integrated into the latest next-generation platforms. It is a core element of Rheinmetall’s Mission Master family of autonomous vehicles and combines advanced sensors, technology leading algorithms, and real-time data analysis to allow vehicle platforms to maneuver autonomously in a wide range of operating environments.

American Rheinmetall Vehicles is leveraging the PATH A-kit technology to supply program specific vehicle solutions for the US Army’s Common Tactical Truck program and XM30 program.