The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has awarded IDV a three-year contract for concept development and experimentation services for robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), the Italian company announced on 15 July 2025.
The programme requires IDV to combine uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), co-ordinated and orchestrated within a common advanced interoperable command-and-control (C2) system distributed over pre-defined network nodes, to deliver an integrated RAS capability for complex real-world warfighting scenarios.
“The concepts of operation and employment of the RAS solutions will be developed with end users through a series of operational scenarios in order to show the game changing benefits of an integrated RAS solution,” IDV stated.
The NSPA programme brings together a team of leading technology suppliers from NATO countries with complementary RAS capabilities. IDV, as the lead company, offers various land autonomy solutions, including the Viking UGV and the Optionally Uncrewed Light Multirole Vehicle (LMV OU), which can be driven manually, tele-operated or driven autonomously.
Beyond IDV the programme also sees the participation of LEM, Siralab and Rebel Alliance, which are all leading companies in the supply of state-of-the-art technology solutions.
Experimentation with users from the Italian Army and other NATO armed forces will prove how the systems and architectures can generate operational advantage and mission effectiveness, efficiency and reduced risk to life, while at the same time optimising operational doctrines on the battlefield. Initial mission scenarios will include resupply; casualty evacuation (casevac) and forward medical evacuation (medevac); lines of communication route reconnaissance; intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR); manned/unmanned teaming (MUM-T) convoy missions; and recovery tasks.
This work aims to define RAS strategy and to outline implementation roadmaps for the introduction into service of RAS technology.
The NSPA is NATO’s lead organisation for multinational acquisition, support and sustainment in all domains. The agency links industry and nations to find the most cost-effective and efficient solutions, whether for national or collective defence. The NSPA is headquartered in Luxembourg, with main operational centres in France, Hungary and Italy.
