Next Generation Combat Vehicle Advanced Technology

Next Generation Combat Vehicle Advanced Technology falls under the Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) budget item for the Army's Advanced Technology Development (ATD). The specific goal of this program is to execute development, maturation, and demonstration for the Army's modernization priority for the Next Generation of Combat Vehicle (NGCV). This includes maturing, integrating, and demonstrating combat vehicle technologies that enable the Army to have a smarter, faster, more lethal, more precise, more protected, and more adaptable force. The program focuses on technology development to support leap ahead capabilities for manned, optionally manned, and unmanned vehicles that deliver decisive lethality. The research is performed by the United States (U.S.) Army Futures Command and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

Within PE 0603462A, specific objectives include developing and demonstrating innovative enabling technologies that enable scalable integration of multi-domain robotic and autonomous system capabilities within Army formations supporting all combat warfighting functions. This involves focusing on Platform Electronic Control and Autonomy Safety Engineering to optimize electronic closed-loop control of by-wire vehicle systems for stable and reliable control in the presence of potential malicious or unintended commands for both wheeled and tracked unmanned vehicles. Additionally, the program aims to mature and demonstrate advanced mobility performance of autonomous systems within complex combat scenarios to allow for the completion of mission goals in individual and teaming configurations at various levels of autonomy. This includes optimizing autonomous vehicle maneuvering in hostile environments using government-owned autonomy software and improving cybersecurity posture in the development of autonomy. The program also focuses on developing conceptual, logical, and physical data models while connecting them to existing instantiated architectures to further develop safety and cyber models associated with evolving model viewpoints.