Rod Millen Special Vehicles brings Gladiator one step closer to reality

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has selected Team Retiarius for a Phase II, $2 Million contract to support technology development, hardware design, and demonstration of the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (TUGV).

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (PRWEB) The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has selected Team Retiarius for a Phase II, $2 Million contract to support technology development, hardware design, and demonstration of the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (TUGV). Operational demonstrations will be performed to show compliance with requirements defined by the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC).

Gladiator is planned as a robust, compact, unmanned, tele-operated/semi-autonomous, multipurpose ground vehicle system possessing a scouting and direct engagement capability. It will provide the Marine Corps with remote reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA), nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) reconnaissance, obstacle breaching, and direct fire capability to neutralize threats and reduce risk to the warfighter. Tactical Gladiator units will be fielded by the Marine Corps starting in 2006.

Team Retiarius is a collection of companies with subject matter expertise in the areas of mobility, robotics, advanced powertrain and composite armor. The team is led by Lockheed Martins Missiles and Fire Control. Gene Holleque, Lockheed Martins director of combat maneuver systems said, Our focus is on providing our Marine Corps customer with an affordable solution that reduces risks to the warfighter working in hostile environments."

ROD MILLEN SPECIAL VEHICLES (RMSV) of Huntington Beach, California is responsible for vehicle design integration, mobility analysis, and design and construction of suspension, chassis, vehicle dynamics/suspension control electronics, powertrain hardware and controls, as well as overall vehicle assembly.

Gladiator represents an entirely new class of vehicle with unique challenges and opportunities. Many of the old vehicle design tenets, based on over seventy years of manned vehicle experience, had to be revisited. For instance, mobility tools widely used to estimate military vehicle performance had difficulty with sub 1-ton vehicles operating over soft terrain like snow and mud," said Brian Miller, Project Manager for RMSV.

Rod Millen Special Vehicles designs and develops vehicles and advanced mobility solutions for the U.S. armed forces and commercial customers. Headquartered in Huntington Beach, California the Rod Millen Group is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology solutions for manned and unmanned military vehicles, high performance concept cars, race vehicles, and rides for major theme parks.

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CONTACTS:

Rod Millen Special Vehicles:

R. Brian Miller
(714) 594-2312

Dean Banks
(714) 594-2226

Rod Millen Special Vehicles
7575 Reynolds Circle
Huntington Beach, CA 92647-6787
(714) 594-2222 Fax
www.rodmillen.com