Aerospace and defense company Textron pulled the covers off a revolutionary Robotic Combat Vehicle at the 2019 AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.
Textron has unveiled the Ripsaw M5 unmanned vehicle in an armed configuration.
The Ripsaw is intended to perform various missions including convoy protection, perimeter defense, surveillance, rescue, border patrol, crowd control, and explosive ordnance disposal. For perimeter defense or crowd control, a belt of M5 Modular Crowd Control Munitions (MCCM) can be mounted around the vehicle to break up crowds or non-lethally engage personnel with flash-bang effects and rubber bullets. Cameras provide 360-degree coverage for situational awareness for the operator.
The Textrom-lead team offers the new unmanned light tank with a remote weapons station to respond to the U.S. Army’s rapid Robotic Combat Vehicle acquisition.
Soldiers in the field need the right equipment to be successful. A tank that is too heavy to cross a bridge or maneuver through rough terrain and high altitudes can have a serious impact on mission success.
To meet the challenge of keeping Soldiers the best-equipped in the world and to prepare for the battlefield of the future, the Army has refocused its modernization efforts on six priorities, included the unmanned combat vehicles.
With FLIR, Textron Systems will deliver the Army’s future ‘robotic wingman’ with the situational awareness and decisive lethality needed to provide standoff for U.S. troops through intelligent sensing and, ultimately, to defeat current and future foes on the battlefield.
According to the company, the new Ripsaw combat vehicle will allow the U.S. Army to bring the future fight to today’s battlefields.
