Increasing the Mobility of Dismounted Marines

• Main Authors: Holste, Steven T, Ciccimaro, Dominic A, Dudenhoeffer, Donald D
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: AFGHANISTAN; Computer Programming and Software; COMPUTER PROGRAMS; DISMOUNTED MARINES; GROUND VEHICLES; HUMVEES; IROBOT PACKBOT; LETHALITY; LOGISTICS SUPPORT; Logistics, Military Facilities and Supplies; MANEUVERS; MARINE CORPS PERSONNEL; MILITARY FORCES(UNITED STATES); MOBILITY; OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS; Personnel Management and Labor Relations; ROBOTICS; SUMET(SMALL UNIT MOBILITY ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGIES); Surface Transportation and Equipment; SURVEYS; SURVIVABILITY; TACTICAL WARFARE; TERRAIN; TERRORISM; UGV(UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE); UNMANNED; WARFARE

In the Global War on Terror, particularly in Areas of Operation such as Afghanistan, there is an urgent need for a means of increasing the mobility of dismounted Marines in order to provide them with increased speed, lethality, and survivability in an inhospitable terrain. A promising avenue of inquiry is an investigation resulting in a market survey involving the rapidly-developing field of unmanned ground systems. To this end, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Department (ONR-30) commissioned the Unmanned Systems Branch (7171) of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) to conduct a detailed survey and analysis of current and developing robotic technologies to support the Small Unit Mobility Enhancement Technologies (SUMET) strategy at ONR. The specific focus is on tactical unmanned ground systems capable of supporting an increase in the mobility of dismounted Marines operating in a tactical environment, lightening the load of the individual Marine, and possibly providing a logistical resupply capability for small units. The scope of this project was to conduct 'an encyclopedic survey that will span the range of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), from the iRobot Packbot size up to the size of a Humvee.' More than 500 systems were identified for evaluation against the ONR-specified criteria, and broad performance data were collected in seven categories for each of these systems. Each of the systems was evaluated against the ONR-specified criteria and those that met minimum standards were rank-ordered according to a more complete list of performance criteria. The top 15 systems are profiled and discussed in Section IV. Even among the top systems, the overall scores are comparatively modest, and each system has significant weaknesses involving one or more of the criteria. In fact, among the systems reviewed, no single system is 'best-of-breed' across the board for all-or even most-of the pe