This Robot The 10th Mountain Is Testing Could Become The Army's Revolutionary Mechanical Donkey

The U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division has posted videos online of troops from its 1st Brigade testing a new small unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, called the Punisher. The evaluation is part of a larger program, which is looking to develop a system to help carry equipment and provide mobile power generation for small infantry units. But the vehicles could take on additional missions in the future, acting as weapons carriers, small ambulances, and more.

The 10th Mountain is conducting the evaluations within the latest iteration of the division’s major readiness exercise, nicknamed Mountain Peak, which began in the training areas outside of Fort Drum, New York in November 2018. Various units within the 1st Brigade will use the Punisher, a product of the Maine-based firm Howe & Howe, along with the Polaris MRZR-X, the 8x8 version of General Dynamics Land Systems' Multipurpose Unmanned Tactical Transport (MUTT), and the HDT Global Hunter Wheeled Offload Logistics Follower (Hunter WOLF). Troops will report back with their findings to the officials in charge of the Army's Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) program. 

“I'm not an Infantry Soldier,” U.S. Army Captain Erika Hanson, the Assistant Product Manager for SMET, told the service’s reporters in June 2018. “But I've carried a rucksack – and I can tell you I can move a lot faster without a rucksack on my back. Not having to carry this load will make the Soldier more mobile and more lethal in a deployed environment.”