What is known

The RACER Heavy Platform (RHP) has a huge feature 12 tons weight and 3.65 meters length. These machines are programmed using the basic Textron M5 system, which is already used in many of the US Army’s unmanned vehicles. It is designed to work with RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFV), which are relatively small (only 2 tonnes), have no windows and no protection.

Tests of the vehicle were carried out at military testing grounds in Texas in late 2023, with the participation of teams from the University of Washington and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but DARPA has only now announced them.

Videos of Texas tests showing the fully autonomous movement of these giant vehicles in off-road conditions are now available on YouTube.

Watch RACER Heavy Platform test footage: video

The machine is able to move quite quickly, overcoming an uneven surface, water, stones, potholes and other obstacles. So what are these green “eyes”? Tim Gaines, DARPA’s public affairs director, reported: “just an indicator showing the status of the vehicle”. If you see green, it means the tank is on and offline.

At the 32nd second of the video, you can see images that look like a sensor scan. We see both species at the same time. This means that RHP can map the surrounding surface to determine the best path to travel. Although the developers do not say anything about this, probably the tank is able to determine the character of the surface, its depth and height, passability and other indicators. Maybe there is a LIDAR on board.

Tests will continue

This was the second phase of RACER trials, which showed “increased adaptability and capabilities of the underlying algorithms.” It all started last fall when the team tested the first samples of the RHP together with a small RFV. The team says it plans to continue experimenting and improving, with new phases of development and testing approximately every six months.

DARPA also published a new video on YouTube showing tests of smaller RFVs notable for their adaptability in autonomous mode. Interestingly, the test teams had no experience in this field, which, in their opinion, made the experiments as close as possible to real-world usage conditions.

RACER Fleet Vehicles test: video

At the moment, it is unclear when the development will be completed and on what principle this pair of machines will be distributed – whether it will serve only in the US army or can be supplied to allied countries.