Oshkosh to integrate PLS vehicles with autonomous technology
Oshkosh Defense has received a $49 million contract to integrate existing Palletized Load System (PLS) vehicles with autonomous technology as part of the US Army’s Expedient Leader Follower (ExLF) programme, the company announced on 27 June.
Under the contract Oshkosh will integrate an initial 70 autonomy kits for programme development and operational technical demonstrations. The contract holds an option to procure up to 150 autonomy kits.
The ExLF programme addresses the needs of the leader follower directed requirement and programme of record by removing soldiers from the vehicle while operating in highly-contested areas.
Oshkosh autonomous technology has been designed with the flexibility to be operated in a variety of modes, including leader-follower, fully autonomous and teleoperation, to support multiple manned or unmanned operations. The technology can be easily integrated into both new and legacy vehicles. Designed to support rapid deployment, soldiers can be trained to operate these autonomous vehicles in only a few days.
The PLS provides better efficiency and performance to the US Army for loading, unloading and delivering materials. It can carry a wide range of cargo and is specially designed to load and unload a variety of flatrack or IOS compatible containers autonomously.
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