ATLAS Uncrewed “Combat Wingman” Fighting Vehicle Unveiled
BAE Systems has launched its new uncrewed ground vehicle, or UGV, the Autonomous Tactical Light Armor System (ATLAS) Collaborative Combat Variant (CCV), a roughly 11-ton 8×8 vehicle, developed in Australia, and pitched as a “combat wingman” with the potential for a high degree of autonomy. Armed with a powerful 25mm Bushmaster cannon, the vehicle is the latest addition to a growing number of UGVs that are designed to provide more flexibility to ground forces’ commanders, primarily by reducing the risks that personnel are exposed to on the battlefield.
Unveiled at the Land Forces 2024 exposition in Melbourne yesterday by the company’s BAE Systems Australia subsidiary, the ATLAS CCV is described as a “cost-effective, modular, 8×8 UGV.” It’s a design that fits into the manufacturer’s vision of a future battlefield that will “involve a mix of autonomous, semi-autonomous, and human-machine teams, generating combat mass and removing soldiers from many of the most dangerous tasks.”
By adding uncrewed platforms like the ATLAS CCV to ground forces, BAE Systems argues that overall costs will be driven down, with UGVs being cheaper to acquire and operate (not least, since they require a smaller personnel footprint). At the same time, the company envisages the ATLAS CCV as very much an adjunct to crewed platforms like tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
The Autonomous Tactical Light Armor System (ATLAS) Collaborative Combat Variant (CCV). BAE Systems
Core design principles in the ATLAS CCV include modularity so that it can be adapted for different missions and upgraded through its service life.
Perhaps most significant, however, is the concept of autonomous operations, with BAE Systems outlining missions in which the ATLAS CCV will be driven by an “autonomy system” that will be able to avoid obstacles, plan routes, and make “tactical decisions.”
Those tactical decisions will not include firing weapons, with the ATLAS CCV’s gun turret including a ‘human-in-the-loop’ targeting system.
“We’ve developed the ATLAS vehicle to give soldiers the advantage on the modern battlefield,” explained Andrew Gresham, Managing Director, Defense Delivery at BAE Systems Australia, in a company media release. “This has resulted in an autonomous platform that will deliver the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks expected in a combat environment.”
BAE Systems
Developed in Australia, the ATLAS is already being pitched to the Australian Army, with the demonstrator wearing the service’s camouflage colors. The Australian Department of Defense has been an enthusiastic proponent of uncrewed systems, especially in the air domain, but increasingly also at sea. Now, BAE Systems is trying to capitalize on interest in these emerging technologies in the land warfare branch.
“We have proven expertise in autonomous technologies, built on more than 30 years of complex autonomous projects,” Gresham added. “We’re excited that this is the first UGV of its kind to be developed in Australia and look forward to working with our industry partners to deliver this capability for our customers.”
Looking around the vehicle, one feature that immediately stands out is the Vantage Automated Turret System (ATS), billed by BAE Systems as being “lightweight, affordable, and highly automated” and armed with a low-profile 25mm M242 Bushmaster cannon.
Vantage ATS is specifically designed for use on uncrewed platforms and its integration on the ATLAS CCV makes this a notably hard-hitting UGV and one that is suitable for assault missions.
Indeed, the power of the Bushmaster cannon, which has an effective range out to around 1.5 miles, means the ATLAS CCV will be able to take on infantry fighting vehicles, but the war in Ukraine has also once again demonstrated the Bushmaster’s effectiveness against tanks, as well.
The ATLAS CCV’s fully stabilized 25mm gun has a dual ammunition feed system, with a ready-use ammunition capacity of 260 rounds. Two separate types of ammo, such as armor piercing and high explosive, can be loaded and toggled between thanks to its dual feed system.
Other more offensive roles envisaged for the vehicle include counter-drone and indirect fire support using a 120mm automated mortar system.
The ATLAS CCV is armed with a low-profile 25mm M242 Bushmaster cannon. BAE Systems
The 8×8 wheeled configuration chosen for the ATLAS CCV provides a good balance of speed and mobility on and off the road while ensuring that the vehicle is also easily transportable. The UGV’s dimensions are tailored to fit inside a standard 20-foot ISO container or 20-foot ISO flat rack and it can be transported by aircraft and landing craft.
Once deployed, the ATLAS CCV is expected to undertake a variety of roles, both in a standalone capacity, like the aforementioned assault missions, but primarily in support of crewed platforms.
In this way, the ATLAS CCV should act as a force multiplier, including supporting other combat vehicles on the battlefield by transporting ammunition, fuel, spares, and other supplies, for example.
Another role outlined for the ATLAS CCV is reconnaissance, which the baseline vehicle will be able to perform thanks to a sensor suite that includes a multi-spectral automatic target detection, tracking, and classification system. In this way, the ATLAS CCV could scout ahead of crewed fighting vehicles, venturing into more dangerous areas to find targets that it could then engage itself, or provide coordinates for crewed platforms to attack.
As well as operating like a more traditional armored scout, BAE Systems describes the vehicle as taking on other surveillance missions, including as a “leave-in-place ‘sentry’ that can detect and track threats and hand these off to other combat assets,” and conducting electronic surveillance.
Mirroring the emerging air power concepts in which ‘loyal wingman’ drones work in collaboration with crewed combat aircraft, the ATLAS CCV is also being pitched as a “combat wingman,” in which it will serve as a companion for crewed combat vehicles.
Here, again, the ATLAS CCV would be expected to take on more dangerous missions on behalf of crewed ground forces, including flank security, target identification and engagement, combat reconnaissance, and direct fire. For these sorts of missions, the vehicle’s combination of firepower, compact size, and high mobility are seen as key selling points. The ATLAS CCV’s mobility is claimed to be sufficient for it to work as a combat wingman for crewed tracked vehicles as well as wheeled ones.
Concept artwork from BAE Systems shows two ATLAS CCVs working alongside a formation of crewed main battle tanks. BAE Systems
The manufacturer has also provided details about the degree to which the ATLAS CCV will operate autonomously.
“The system is capable of uncrewed dynamic vehicle behaviors such as accepting real-time control from a user (akin to remote control), autonomous geometric path following (a string of waypoints defining a path the vehicle follows), and path generation to avoid obstacles and navigate complex environments such as bushland,” BAE Systems says on its website.
For this, the vehicle relies on the combination of an advanced sensor suite, which feeds data to the autonomy system ‘brain’ to enable vehicle self- and situational awareness. This includes identifying, classifying, and understanding the environment around the vehicle in real time and formulating appropriate responses so that it can complete its mission.
The autonomy system also ensures that the ATLAS CCV remains in secure communication with other crewed and uncrewed assets. This should allow some degree of teaming, with formations of the UGVs working together in a concept that broadly echoes aerial and naval drone ‘swarms.’ This would mean multiple ATLAS CCVs could be used in combined assaults, for example, multiplying their effect and having a much better chance of overwhelming hostile forces.
At this stage, however, it’s not clear whether all of the vehicle’s functions other than operating the gun turret will be executed fully autonomously or if a human will still be in the loop somewhere, at least giving higher-level instructions. Also unclear is whether a human operator will be able to control the vehicle beyond the line of sight, or if a line-of-sight communications link will be required. Regardless, any degree of autonomous capability in the ATLAS CCV will at least help alleviate the workload on any human ‘quarterbacks,’ too.
Several subsystems in the vehicle are common to those found on existing Australian Army platforms, including the 25mm Bushmaster that is found on the Australian Light Armored Vehicle (ASLAV), as well as Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, U.S. Marine Corps LAVs, and others. Meanwhile, the Cummins ISB six-cylinder diesel engine and Allison 3000 automatic transmission, both of which are also used in the Supacat HMT high-mobility vehicle.
Australian Army soldiers from the 3rd Brigade in an ASLAV as part of Exercise Brolga Run 2024. Australian Department of DefenseSGT SUSANNA BEYER
While the Australian heritage of the ATLAS CCV should position it well for potential domestic orders, it’s meanwhile the case that the concept of cannon-armed UGVs is becoming more popular in the West. At the same time, Russia and China are also working on similar kinds of platforms.
The U.S. Army recently conducted the first live-fire testing with one of its prototype 30mm cannon-armed Ripsaw M5 unmanned mini-tanks, as you can read about here.
A Ripsaw M5 unmanned ground vehicle at Fort Dix, New Jersey, during testing in 2021. U.S. Army
Although the Ripsaw M5 is tracked rather than wheeled, it’s intended for a broadly similar category of missions to the ATLAS CCV. The U.S. vehicle is similarly intended to work closely with crewed platforms, as demonstrated when it was operated from a control station installed inside a modified Bradley infantry fighting vehicle in a combat wingman-type role.
Like the ATLAS CCV, the Ripsaw M5 is designed to accommodate a wide array of payloads with relative ease and falls into a broadly similar weight category, at around 10.5 tons, although the tracked platform implies an overall weight penalty compared to the wheeled configuration used in the BAE Systems design. Broadly speaking, the ATLAS CCV, Ripsaw M5, and other UGVs, like the tracked Milrem Type-X, fit into a weight class of between around 10-12 tons.
It is also worth noting that the Australian Army’s crewed ASLAV tips the scales at around 13 tons.
As for the U.S. Army’s Mission Enabling Technologies Demonstrator (MET-D) vehicle, as the adapted Bradley drone controller is known, this provides one idea as to how the ATLAS CCV might be employed as part of a crewed/uncrewed concept.
The U.S. Army’s Mission Enabling Technologies Demonstrator (MET-D), a modified Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Persistent Systems
The MET-D is a mobile control center for UGVs although it notably has an array of additional capabilities, including an advanced communications and data-sharing suite and cameras positioned around the hull to improve situational awareness. U.S. Army tests have demonstrated that the MET-D can control two UGVs, with the entire trio operating as a single team.
One focus of U.S. Army studies in this area has been on the degree to which it might want its future UGVs to be attritable — indicating that they are cheap enough for commanders to be willing to commit them to missions where the risk of losing them would preclude the use of more expensive platforms.
Notably, the U.S. Army has talked of wanting its medium UGV — the category into which the Ripsaw M5 falls — to be “durable” rather than attritable, while the light UGV will fall into the attritable category.
It’s not clear whether BAE Systems sees the ATLAS CCV as being an attritable platform, although it’s certainly expected to be lower cost, at least compared with crewed vehicles of similar size, weight, and capabilities.
The U.S. Army has also outlined using its medium UGVs under the direct control of human personnel, although it expects an increasing level of autonomous capabilities to be introduced as time goes on. The same should be possible for the ATLAS CCV, too, based on how BAE Systems describes its levels of autonomy.
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