Army awards Oshkosh Leader Follower contract

Oshkosh Defense has received a $49 million contract to integrate scalable autonomous technology onto Palletized Load System vehicles as part of the Expedient Leader Follower program.

Oshkosh collaborated on the program with Maryland-based Robotics Research, who provides the autonomy kit housing the system's computing and sensing hardware.

The Army will use the ExLF autonomy kit for supply transport demonstrations. The program has a directed requirement to issue 150 PLS trucks to soldiers for a one-year operational technology demonstration.

ExLF will undergo three incremental upgrades slowly building on autonomous capability through open-architecture software that is being looked at for possible implementation onto the Next Generation Combat Vehicle, an Army official said in April.

Oshkosh will integrate an initial 70 autonomy kits for program development and operational technical demonstrations under the contract awarded June 26, with the option to procure up to 150 autonomy kits.

The contract term ends in March 2021, Oshkosh said.