Rheinmetall Selected for Spiral 3 of UK RPV Programme

For the third time, the UK Ministry of Defence has awarded Rheinmetall a contract for its Robotic Platoon Vehicles (RPV) programme, the company writes in a press release. The RPV programme is a three-phase experiment. Its purpose is to determine the extent to which unmanned vehicles can boost the combat effectiveness and capabilities of dismounted troops at platoon level. For Spiral 3, the programme’s final phase, the British once again chose to work with Rheinmetall Canada.

The British Army ordered four Rheinmetall MISSION MASTER SP – Surveillance Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles (A-UGV) in an Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) configuration and three Rheinmetall MISSION MASTER SP – Cargo vehicles, for a total of seven new A-UGVs. The UK had procured a total of eight MISSION MASTER vehicles in previous phases of the programme. MISSION MASTER SP is part of the Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle (A-UGV) family developed by Rheinmetall Canada.
The new order is scheduled to be fully delivered by the end of August of this year. According to Rheinmetall, It includes comprehensive training, support services, and spare parts. Rheinmetall Canada is the prime contractor, working in cooperation with Rheinmetall Provectus, its Ottawa-based robotics branch.

JH