Air Warrior Col. John W. Thompson - KMI Media Group

goes 50 mph ‘out of the box.’” You want
something even faster? “We are delivering
a version which exceeds 75 mph and has a
300 mile range,” Deacon said.
As far as armament, the ATVs can
carry many types of weapons, he said.
“Weapons that we know have been
mounted on the Prowler platform include
the M60, M240 and MG58 series crew
served machine guns,” Deacon said. “The
Prowler also has carried the 60 and 81
mm mortars.” With the 81 mm, the
Prowler is used for mobility only, not
as a launching platform. Further, the
Prowler also has been equipped with the
Javelin, Kornet, Carl Gustav and Spike
anti-armor missile systems.
Deacon cited the ease of transporting
the ATVs. “Not only can multiple Prowlers
be transported in MH47 and similar series
helos, only the Prowler has been actually
tested and accepted for the CV-22.”
The military already has focused on
the Prowler, Deacon noted, including the
Special Operations Command, the Air
Force, the Marine Corps and Navy SEALs,
along with international customers.
Prowlers also offer other benefits
“that are not available elsewhere in the
LTATV class of vehicle,” Deacon added,
such as a 24 volt DC auxiliary power to
meet heavy communications and laser
requirements. Of all the ATV Corp. technology
innovations, Deacon concluded,
“perhaps the most significant is the current
development of a light weight modular
armor system under way with the
Ceradyne Corp.”
John Deere also offers a full line of
ATVs, with off-road capabilities design
bolstered by the company’s long history
of producing farm machines. One
of them is the M-Gator A1, a veteran
workhorse with six wheels and diesel
power providing moderate speeds, Mike
Ready, John Deere manager of U.S.
government sales, said in an interview
with SOTECH.
It has a rollover protection frame
that can be tied down for easier loading
onto aircraft, and it also can be
carried beneath helos in a sling. The
A1 can carry two litters in back and
another litter in front for casualty evacuation.
While John Deere is associated with
the color green on its farm machinery
and a different green on its military
vehicles, the A1 soon will be available in
desert tan.
30 | SOTECH 8.9
Gators have been purchased by the
Army and National Guard, and the FBI.
The Gator A2 is a newer offering with four
wheels and a 32 mph top speed. It has a
cage type tubular steel rollover protection
meeting safety standards including those
set by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, he said.
But the company also will be offering
the A-25 I that will provide speeds
up to 44 mph, responding to the special
operations community’s need for faster
vehicles. Another John Deere ATV offering
is one that tells the military to leave the
driving to us: The R-Gator is a robotic ATV
built on the M-Gator platform.
Mark E. Bodwell, group manager for
business development with John Deere
military affairs, explained in an interview
how the R-Gator can be whatever you
want it to be, from a regular soldierdriven
vehicle to a totally autonomous
vehicle able to drive itself, figuring out
how to maneuver around obstacles. It can
mean human beings don’t have to lose
arms, legs or lives in EOD operations.
While such cutting-edge technology,
one might assume, is created in the military
area and then migrates eventually to
civilian use, the situation here is just the
opposite: John Deere originally devised
the guidance technology for its huge
green machines that operate on farms,
using GPS to determine just where and
how much fertilizer to apply in which
areas, for example, Bodwell explained.
To create the robotic ATV, he said, “We
adopted all of those [agricultural machine
guidance] technologies and placed them
on the M-Gator chassis” to create the
R-Gator. The R-Gator has many modes
with varying degrees of automation,
Bodwell said:
The first mode involves a soldier driving
the ATV as he would any vehicle.
The second mode can involve a soldier
driving the ATV to a destination, where he
debarks and then places the R-Gator on
autopilot so that it drives itself back to the
origination point, using certain waypoints
on the route to plot its return course.
The third mode has the R-Gator operated
remotely as an unmanned ground
vehicle, where the operator uses a unit to
control the R-Gator and it sends back live
video to the operator. This is especially
useful for special operations missions,
such as forward observation or route
clearance, or checking for unexploded
ordnance, Bodwell said. With EZY-lift,
an EOD box can be eased down to the
ground, and a robot can then move to
clear a building.
The fourth mode is fully autonomous,
where the R-Gator has way points programmed
into it along with a destination
point, and it figures out how to get there,
such as deciding whether it can run over
an obstacle or must maneuver around
it. If the obstacle totally blocks the way
ahead, the R-Gator then devises an alternative
route to reach the destination. An
operator may grab back control of the
vehicle at any time.
The R-Gator can be had with an engine
that runs on diesel fuel or JP-8 jet aircraft
engine fuel. As to who uses the R-Gator,
although this type of vehicle still is in
the early stages of its life, the Army has
several, and the company also is working
with the Navy and Marine Corps, he said.
Turning to transportability, the Gator
family fits on a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor
aircraft, though it’s a tight fit, and slips
easily onto a CH-47 Chinook heavy lift
transport helo, Bodwell said.
HDt-Ha y e s Di v e r s i f i e D
te C H n o l o g i e s
HDT offers several ATVs aimed at the
military market, such as the LTATV-U1
light tactical all terrain vehicle. It can
roll at 50 mph, with a range of 120 miles.
It can tow 1,300 pounds, and has a total
payload capacity of 1,378 pounds. It has
a 45 hp liquid cooled engine, and a winch
on the front to pull itself out of trouble. It
has a four-passenger roll cage for rollover
protection and full-length skid plates.
Faster yet: The LTATV-U1 Support
vehicle can drive 55. It has a 170-mile
range. The 1.34 liter horizontally opposed
two cylinder engine operates on a
variety of jet fuels including JP8, along
with diesel and biodiesel, producing 70
hp. It has a two-passenger roll cage, and
a cargo bed.
Want to go even faster? The LTATV-U1
Tactical goes 70 mph, and has a 170-mile
range. The 65 hp engine also runs on
an array of jet fuels, diesel or biodiesel.
It has a four passenger roll cage and
a winch. O
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Dave Ahearn at
davea@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for
related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
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