U.S. Army Tests Driverless Volcano Mine Dispenser at Michigan Site

The U.S. Army tested an autonomous version of its Volcano mine dispenser during May demonstrations at Camp Grayling, Michigan. Soldiers remotely fired the system for the first time and later directed it to lay two separate minefields without human assistance, Defense News reported.

The Autonomous Volcano pairs the M139 Volcano dispenser with a driverless Palletized Load System truck. When mounted to a vehicle, the dispenser can blanket roughly 32 acres with up to 960 mines. The system automatically logs mine locations and uploads the data to the Army’s common operating picture.

Soldiers from the 4th Engineering Battalion conducted the first live-fire scenario by remotely firing inert mine canisters. The platform then emplaced two minefields simultaneously. The project was developed jointly by the U.S.

And United Kingdom, with defense contractor Forterra integrating the dispenser onto the autonomous vehicle. “Autonomous Volcano leverages low-cost modernization to turn a legacy platform into a high-yield autonomous asset — securing asymmetric overmatch and closing a critical area-denial gap,” Col.

Vinson Morris, who oversees the Army’s project manager for close combat systems, said in a statement.

The Army plans to test the system in realistic battlefield scenarios later this month. Defense News reported that the service is also experimenting with unmanned aerial systems to drop grappling hooks and with drones to enter breaches instead of soldiers, along with autonomous vehicles for mortar resupply and autonomous boats for information gathering.