According to a Tweet published by BAE Systems Australia on November 22, 2021, the company has delivered 20 M113A4 Optionally Crewed Combat Vehicles to the Australian Army.
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Australian army M113As tracked APC Armored Personnel Carrier in autonomous configuration. (Picture source Twitter BAE Systems Australia)
The M113AS4 is the standard tracked armored personnel carrier in service with the Australian armed and the APC will be replaced by a new tracked IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) in the next few years in the framework of Project LAND 400 Phase 3 program of the Australian army.
The M113AS4 is an Australian-made upgrade of the old M113AS1 and M113AS3 which are based on the American M113A1 tracked Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), one of the most popular light tracked APC in the world. The project of the Australian M113 upgrade was led by BAE Systems.
In November 2019, the Australian Army has demonstrated a pair of autonomous armored vehicles M113AS4 that it will use to study how robots will impact the battlefield of the future. At the Majura Training Site in the Australian Capital Territory, two specially modified M113AS4 tracked armored vehicles carried out battlefield simulations while the Chief of the Army looked on.
In August 2020, BAE Systems has announced the development of autonomous technologies integrated into the Australian army M113 AS4 tracked APCs. The new project followed the conversion and trial of two optionally crewed M113 Armored Personnel Carriers last year and another two earlier this year.
The completed tracked APC M113AS4 have been used to showcase BAE Systems’ world-leading autonomous technologies, which could have a potentially revolutionary impact on Australian Defense Force operations. The M113As4 converted by BAE Systems features manual control, teleoperation, autonomous waypoint navigation, and follow the leader capabilities.
The use of autonomous armored vehicles will assist soldiers to respond in an accelerating warfare environment. It will increase their speed of initiative to outpace, out-maneuver, and out-think conventional and unconventional threats.
