Ricardo to stage DARPA FANG vehicle challenge

Ricardo has announced that it has been selected by the United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to stage the FANG Challenge, a series of three competitions designed to produce the Fast, Adaptable, Next-Generation Ground (FANG) vehicle. FANG will be a new heavy, amphibious infantry fighting vehicle with functional requirements intended to mirror the US Marine Corps' Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).

According to Ricardo, the FANG Challenge represents a ‘radically novel approach’ to the development of a new infantry fighting vehicle. It will use a crowd-sourcing model to produce revolutionary ideas through three prize-based design competitions, which require participants to design and develop progressively more complex vehicle subsystems, culminating in the design of a full infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). The winning crowd-sourced design will be eligible for consideration as the go-forward design for the ACV programme.

Ricardo has selected a team of world-class organizations to support it in the development and execution of the FANG Challenge, including The Quell Group, Comet, Georgia Institute of Technology's Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL), Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS), and Southwest Research Institute.

The FANG Challenge is expected to begin in early 2013. Additional information on the FANG Challenge and how individuals can participate in the competitions, along with eligibility, will be announced by DARPA at a later date.