American Rheinmetall Vehicles, Sterling Heights, MI, has won one of two contracts awarded in the US Army’s Small Multi-Purpose Equipment Transport vehicle (S-MET) programme. American Rheinmetall Vehicles’ unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) will provide the Army with a versatile and resilient platform capable of efficiently transporting supplies and equipment over rugged terrain to support combat operations. American Rheinmetall Vehicles collaborated with lead partner Textron Systems on the proposal. American Rheinmetall Vehicles will manufacture and deliver eight prototypes to the Army in 2025 for testing, evaluation, and to compete against the platform delivered by the second awardee before the Army downselects to a single platform and the programme transitions to full scale production.
Rheinmetall has substantial expertise in developing unmanned ground vehicles, exemplified in its Mission Master family of vehicles, which encompass a range of modular, autonomous platforms designed for diverse missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance, cUAS, and logistical support. American Rheinmetall Vehicles’ S-MET solution leverages the ground-breaking advancements in unmanned technology found in the Mission Master vehicles to deliver a UGV tailored to meet the unique requirements of the Army’s S-MET programme. The platform also uses many mature commercial components already found in the Army’s inventory or the commercial ATV space which drives affordability and reliability, and addresses electromagnetic concerns through its unique composite structure and use of materials.
“American Rheinmetall Vehicles is honoured with the Army’s selection and excited to deliver our S-MET platform which is particularly attractive due to its technological excellence, affordability, and reliability,” said Jim Schirmer, Senior Vice President and Deputy Managing Director of American Rheinmetall Vehicles.
Textron Systems brings to the team more than three decades of experience designing, manufacturing, fielding, and supporting unmanned platforms across air, land and sea domains. Textron Systems and its subsidiary, Howe & Howe, contribute extensive knowledge of robotics and systems integration to the S-MET Inc II programme, having developed the mature, multi-mission capable RIPSAW M5 and M3 ground robotics platforms for the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) programmes. Leveraging the control architecture developed for Textron Systems’ RCV solutions, the team’s S-MET vehicle provides a commonality that enables operators to utilise a common interface for both the RCV and S-MET programmes. This approach reduces the overall training burden and maximises investments made
American Rheinmetall Vehicles LLC (ARV), headquartered in Sterling Heights, MI, with a second office in Troy, MI, is a part of Rheinmetall’s Vehicle Systems division and not only specializes in the development of combat vehicle platforms that provide next-generation products to the U.S. Department of Defense and Federal and State Law Enforcement agencies, but also brings the global group’s portfolio of vehicle systems to the U.S. market. American Rheinmetall Vehicles offers both tracked and wheeled combat vehicle platforms with associated sub-systems and works in conjunction with customer program offices to ensure its products meet specification and performance requirements for programs of interest. Among other efforts, American Rheinmetall Vehicles is actively engaged in supporting the U.S. Army in two particularly high priority modernization programs, the XM30 Combat Vehicle program where the Lynx XM30 just advanced to phase 3 and 4, and the Common Tactical Truck (CTT) program where the HX3 CTT advanced to phase 2 of the program in early 2023.
