Teledyne FLIR debuts vehicle for Army equipment carrier competition
WASHINGTON — Teledyne FLIR is entering the competition for the Army’s light equipment carrier.
The Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transfer Vehicle, or SMET, is intended to carry gear and light payloads to make soldiers in the field more nimble. Four companies competed for the first generation in 2017, and General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) won the first two contracts in 2019 and 2020, and the program is now entering its second increment.
Teledyne FLIR introduced their prototype, the six-wheeled M2RV, at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. It comes with 38 square feet of cargo space, more than 2,600 pounds of payload capacity, and the ability to move at speeds above 10 miles per hour, according to the company.
The model has two attached payloads. The first is its new R80D SkyRaider, a 10-pound quadcopter drone. The second is its 280-HDEP surveillance system, mounted on the rear of the platform.
Teledyne FLIR built the M2RV with a steel unibody, which increases the strength of the chassis and will suit the rugged environments the SMET will need to navigate, said Chris Brown, a senior systems architect. Such a design also seals everything below the cargo deck, around three feet high, he said, allowing the vehicle to ford bodies of water up to that height.
“You really end up [getting] to go wherever a soldier needs to go,” said Brown.
To enter a fight, the M2RV can be sling loaded, or carried by a helicopter, and towed up to 60 miles per hour. With a full tank of fuel and batteries, it has capacity to run for 100 miles, above the Army’s needs for three day, 60-70 mile platoon treks, said Brown.
In the SMET, the Army initially sought a pure equipment carrier to help reduce the burden on soldiers. Since then, its thinking has expanded somewhat, with priority now on the kind of payloads the second increment of the vehicle can carry. The Army is experimenting with different payload options.
GDLS, Hanwha, Rheinmetall, and HDT are expected to compete for the second increment, alongside Teledyne FLIR.
The SMET will play part of a growing role for ground robotics in the Army. The service recently announced that it was moving away from its former framework for the robotic combat vehicle, originally divided into light, medium, and heavy models. Now the Army is only seeking one model, somewhere between the light and medium sizes first envisioned.
Over the next decade, such platforms will add distance between manned and unmanned formations on the battlefield, said Dave Viens, vice president of business development at Teledyne FLIR.
“That vehicle might be the first first platform that engages the enemy before a manned element does,” he said, citing their model’s UAS system as an example.
While the RCV may eventually enter the fight alongside Strykers and Bradleys, the SMET will likely accompany lighter formations.
The SMET “is a very capable, small platform, and we’re seeing a lot of value with experimentation,” Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, the Army’s program executive officer for ground combat systems, told Defense News.
