BAE Systems Australia at the Land Forces 2024 exhibition in Melbourne presented a new development - a “cost-effective, modular, Autonomous Tactical Light Armor System (ATLAS) Collaborative Combat Variant (CCV) 8×8 uncrewed ground vehicle. The UGV is positioned as a “combat wingman” (similar to the Loyal Wingman drones, which must perform tasks together with manned fighter jets) and is another development for the "future battlefield".
As BAE Systems emphasizes, the ATLAS CCV should be a useful addition to already existing manned platforms, in particular tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, but compared to them, it has the advantage of making the vehicle cheaper to operate, an important role here is also played by the fact that these vehicles trivially cheaper to acquire and operate (not least, since they require a smaller personnel footprint), as reported in The War Zone.
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The UGV, of course, was created taking into account the requirements of the concept of autonomous operations, and here it is not only about the ability of the vehicle to avoid obstacles, build a route, etc., but also to make tactical decisions independently.
For this, a number of different sensors are integrated into the vehicle, which provide situational awareness, in addition, communication with other platforms, both unmanned and manned, is guaranteed. This is actually a step towards realizing the concept of "swarm" but on earth.
At the same time, the control of fire remains with the operator of the vehicle - it is a ‘human-in-the-loop’ targeting system. As an option, the vehicle itself can recognize the targets, but it is the person who will make the decision to destroy the identified target.
This vehicle is modular and in fact there are different options for how the ATLAS CCV can destroy the enemy, including a 120 mm mortar. At the exhibition, this UGV was presented with the Vantage Automated Turret System (ATS) with a 25 mm M242 Bushmaster gun - this is the optimal solution, taking into account, as The War Zone emphasizes, that it is effective not only against light armored vehicles, but also against tanks, such as effectively demonstrated by the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
Thanks to a dual ammunition feed system, it is possible to "switch" between different types of shells, with a ready-use ammunition capacity of 260 rounds.
The weight of the 8x8 vehicle, created on the basis of Supacat HMT, is 11 tons. The goal was to balance the passability and transportability of the vehicle - the 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.
As Defense Express reported, earlier BAE Systems Showed TRIDON Mk2 As Ideal Solution Against russian Orlan-10 UAVs.
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