The U.S. Army has put a robotic vehicle into a new program that seeks to expedite the acquisition process and facilitate the deployment of new technology platforms to soldiers, the National Defense Magazine reported Friday.Stew Magnuson writes service branch officials told Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference attendees in Virginia that the Army plans to develop SMET, a robotic squad mission support vehicle designed to carry up to 1,000 pounds of ammunition, rucksacks and other supplies for dismounted troops.
Bryan McVeigh, force protection product manager at the Army’s program executive office for combat support and combat service support, said his office will form a board consists of National Advanced Mobility Consortium-affiliated industry engineers who will work to develop performance specifications for SMET within two weeks, Magnuson reports.
The military branch expects the collaborative board to produce a draft document that details performance specifications for the SMET program in January, the report noted.
McVeigh said he expects the new procurement process for the SMET program to help reduce the time spent on specification development from six to nine months to three months, according to the report.
