As the Army prepares to examine six different plans for the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV), possibilities of what it would look like and be able to do are starting to emerge. The service will take delivery of six prototypes — two manned and four robotic — by the end of September 2019. Soldiers are expected to begin testing the prototypes in 2020.
One scenario includes the possibility that a single soldier might be able to operate several robotic vehicles at a time.
“We believe, in the future operating environment, manned/unmanned teaming at the tactical level is how we are going to retain overmatch and deliver decisive lethality as part of combined arms maneuver,” Col. Gerald Boston, deputy director of the team in charge of the vehicle’s development, said.
Two future prototypes, delivered two years apart from each other, would further advance the Army’s ultimate goal — to field a new NGCV by 2028. The change is necessary because the Army’s current inventory of infantry fighting vehicles are not capable of handling future combat environments, Brig. Gen. David Lesperance, the program director, believes.
“The character of warfare is changing and driving the need to reassess how the Army delivers, operates, and sustains future combat capabilities,” Lesperance said. “NGCV must deliver overmatch and decisive lethality in close combat against peer threats as part of a combined arms team.”
The Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) in Warren, Mich., is developing the technology that ultimately would be incorporated in any new NGCV design. Prototypes likely would have two soldiers — one to operate the vehicle itself, and one to run the unmanned vehicles. In time, TARDEC engineers hope to produce a vehicle that can be operated by a single soldier, who also could manage the drones’ missions and movements as well. For that to happen, the new vehicle must be intuitive for the operator and affordable for the taxpayer, developers believe.
