EN TR

Haber

SSB to Announce Request for Proposal for the Heavy Class Unmanned Ground Vehicles In 2020

Tarih: Issue 99 - June 2020

In the 5th issue of Havelsan Magazine published on April 27, 2020 Mustafa ŞEKER, the Vice-President of the SSB, stated that under the coordination of the SSB, the work on converting manned armored vehicles into unmanned platforms are still continuing within the scope of Heavy Class Unmanned Ground Vehicles program.

April 29, 2020, in his statement, ŞEKER shared information about the road map of the Presidency of Defense Industries on developing unmanned ground vehicles and the current status of the ongoing projects and said "In this context, the opportunities and capabilities available in our Defense Industries are identified, and the needs are assessed in continuous coordination with users. For this purpose, in 2020 we plan to announce the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the supply of vehicles of middle class equipped with automation kits (making vehicles autonomous) and with the capability of autonomy to an extent identified. Furthermore, there are ongoing efforts to develop an original heavy class unmanned ground vehicle that has high performance in shooting and maneuverability and can perform remote-controlled/autonomously under any weather or zone conditions."

Speaking at the Unmanned and Smart Systems Workshop organized by the SSB in December 2017, a BMC official made a presentation on converting the New Generation Kirpi-2 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles into unmanned platforms and shared that they are still working on developing a system that will allow remote control of the unmanned (optionally manned) vehicles to be delivered under the program with the Tactical Vehicle Command Kit developed by Aselsan. If required, the vehicles can be controlled through the portable command unit in another vehicle. It was also shared that the Tactical Vehicle Command kit has a minimum range of 500m line-of-sight (LOS) communication and can display, record, and transfer images through the two driving cameras on the vehicle. Moreover, the images coming from the cameras can be transferred to the portable command unit in one piece or by dividing it into four separate parts. A total of 2 units are planned to be delivered, and thanks to the robot arm attached to the front side of the unmanned Kirpi-2 vehicles, it will be possible to detect and disarm mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a safe distance.

The Unmanned Ground Vehicles project is being carried out by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) as part of the Presidential 100-day action plan. The project has three main categories: light, medium, and heavy class, and according to the images shared by the SSB, the heavy class vehicles include BMC Kirpi and Amazon Armored Vehicles and Nurol's Ejder YALÇIN Tactical Wheeled Armored Vehicles.

The Heavy Class Unmanned Ground Vehicles are planned to be used in logistics, reconnaissance, and transportation in risky areas. The vehicles can also be employed to engage and neutralize hostile threats when necessary with their high firepower and mobility capabilities. As part of the project, the vehicles are intended to maintain their mobility even after the UGV kit integration. The vehicles, which can also be used as manned platforms when needed (optionally manned), can operate in semi-autonomous mode or can be controlled remotely. The vehicles will also have the capability to record images from at least two driving cameras and transfer them to the Remote-Control Computer or share them with other platforms. Additionally, it will also be possible to control the systems and critical subsystems on the vehicles through the Remote-Control Computer.