Joanna Crews
The U.S. Army intends to launch a yearlong technology demonstration effort to evaluate Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport vehicles from four contenders as part of the program’s down-select process.
The service branch said Thursday it chose four out of 10 SMET proposers through a “fly-off” event that took place in November 2017 at Fort Benning in Georgia.
HDT Global‘s Hunter Wolf; Howe and Howe Technologies‘ RS2-H1; General Dynamics‘ Multi-Utility Tactical Transport vehicle and the Applied Research Associates–Neya Systems–Polaris Industries team’s MRZR-X are the final contender platforms.
The program of record is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, followed by the low-rate initial production phase before the deployment to an Army unit by the second or third quarter of FY 2021.
Capt. Erika Hanson, the Army’s SMET assistant product manager, said the service branch established a $100,000 base price for the vehicle.
“Over the course of the tech demo, we’ll be getting feedback from the soldiers and the Marines on what systems best fill the need for the infantryman,” Hanson added.
The Army wants a SMET platform that could carry up to 1,000 pounds of soldier load, include a maximum of five Universal Battery Chargers and operate for 72 hours at a distance of approximately 60 miles.
