Milrem-Otokar co-operation will involve the existing fleet of both companies. (Photo: Milrem Robotics)
Estonian company Milrem Robotics announced on 30 September that it signed a teaming agreement with
Turkish firm Otokar earlier that month during the DSEI 2021 exhibition in London, to merge know-how and resources for the development of autonomous technologies in uncrewed and robotic military vehicles.
The cooperation will entail working with the existing fleet of vehicles of both companies and introducing new systems by developing intelligent functions, encryption and safety features as well as environmental awareness and hybridisation.
Milrem Robotics heads the iMUGS consortium that was awarded €30.6 million ($37.4 million) from the European Commission’s European Defence Industrial Development Programme to develop a European standardized UGV system.
Otokar has 34 years of experience in military vehicles and provides products and services to more than 55 end-users in more than 35 countries. Nearly 33,000 vehicles made by the Turkish company are actively used in NATO and UN missions in different climates and geographies around the world.
Developed by Israel's Uvision and with systems being sold in the thousands to multiple European NATO countries and the US, the Hero family of loitering systems is also in production in the US and Italy, the latter through Rheinmetall.
The Leopard is becoming the tank of choice in central and eastern Europe as Croatia joins Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Hungary in ordering the platform. Lithuania and Croatia have also signed for CAESAR howitzers.
A new system-of-systems concept will unlock digital integration of sensors and weapons for Light Forces, allowing them to shape the battlefield environment on their own terms and upgrade legacy platforms.
The HX truck is already in use in many NATO and allied countries around the world as a logistics vehicle and carrier for high-value systems, including missile firing weapons, so its use for the Global Mobile Artillery Rocket System makes logistical sense.
Lithuania is one of the countries stepping up its defences in the face of the war in Ukraine with a particular focus on its neighbour and Russian ally Belarus, which has been making incursions into Lithuania’s airspace with balloons and drones.
As the British Army seeks to modernise and consolidate its diverse vehicle fleet, yet another change in direction is underway.
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