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Marine Corps awards $20 million contract for a dozen autonomous resupply vehicles
The Marine Corps awarded a $20 million production contract this month to Overland AI for fully autonomous ground vehicles. The Other Transaction Authority agreement is the first such deal for a ground autonomy provider with the U.S. military. About a dozen vehicles are due in roughly nine months.
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The Marine Corps awarded a $20 million contract this month to Overland AI for about a dozen autonomous vehicles scheduled for delivery in nine months. The Other Transaction Authority agreement was issued through the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
Military, company co-founder and CEO Byron Boots said. The firm’s autonomy stack already powers General Dynamics’ Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport, vehicles used by the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps, Textron’s Ripsaw M5, and systems employed by DARPA.
Boots said Overland supplied autonomous vehicles to the Army’s 173rd Airborne Corps for breaching and resupply during Agile Spirit and African Lion exercises.
The company also provided the 82nd Airborne with vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance during a six-month training rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana. The contract covers about a dozen vehicles, which are scheduled for delivery in roughly nine months, Boots said.
Images released with the announcement showed the Overland-made ULTRA, a 2,500-pound vehicle with a payload capacity of about 1,000 pounds.
Boots said the vehicles will initially support resupply and intelligence missions and could integrate with the Marine Air Defense Integrated System for counter-drone operations. The systems are designed for a wide range of terrain and are not limited to any specific theater, he added. “Ground autonomy matters now more than ever,” Boots said.
