US Army to test new Racer robot breacher in first live autonomous mine-clearing drill.

The U.S. Army will conduct its first live demonstration of an autonomous tracked vehicle towing and deploying a mine-clearing line charge to clear a vehicle-width lane through a minefield, and evaluate whether such systems can reduce direct human exposure during breaching operations.

As reported by the Army Times on October 20, 2025, the U.S. Army will test a 12-ton unmanned ground vehicle drawn from the DARPA RACER Heavy Platform in a live mine-clearing exercise at the end of October 2025. The 36th Engineer Brigade will pair the robot with an M58 MICLIC line-charge system to create a cleared lane through a minefield. The event will also mark the Army’s first use of a DARPA-developed unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) in a breaching role.
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The RACER Heavy Platform is a tracked, skid-steer vehicle based on the Textron M5 vehicle and measures approximately 20 feet long with a total weight of around 12 tons. (Picture source: DARPA)

At the end of October 2025, the U.S. Army will conduct its first-ever integration of a DARPA-developed unmanned ground vehicle into a live mine-clearing exercise. The event, organized under the Machine Assisted Rugged Soldier (MARS) autonomous breaching demonstration, will feature the 36th Engineer Brigade operating DARPA’s RACER Heavy Platform, or RHP. This 12-ton tracked vehicle will be paired with the M58 Mine Clearing Line Charge (MICLIC), a rocket-projected explosive line system used to clear 100-meter-long lanes through minefields. The exercise aims to determine whether the RHP can safely tow and deploy the MICLIC to breach minefields autonomously, providing a proof-of-concept for future combat engineering operations while minimizing direct human exposure to explosive hazards and difficult terrain.

Preparations for the event began in early October, when Army engineers started rehearsals using the RHP to tow a trailer for the first time. The 36th Engineer Brigade worked alongside DARPA technicians and Overland AI engineers to adjust vehicle parameters and test stability when towing the MICLIC launcher, ensuring that the trailer and vehicle could operate without flipping during turns or acceleration. Soldiers operated the unmanned vehicle using an upgraded Overland AI interface, while manual operation was carried out with an Xbox-style controller for non-autonomous modes. Contractors spent about an hour training operators on the system’s interface, which is designed for intuitive control. Brigadier General Geoff Van Epps of III Armored Corps invited DARPA to participate in the exercise, which will mark the first time a DARPA platform is used in a practical military breaching mission.

The RACER Heavy Platform is a tracked, skid-steer vehicle based on the Textron M5 base platform and measures approximately 20 feet long with a total weight of around 12 tons. The system was upfitted by Carnegie Robotics for DARPA’s Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program. The RHP is designed for autonomous operation over rugged and unpredictable terrain at speeds reaching nearly 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), a capability rarely achieved by comparable unmanned ground vehicles. Its onboard computing system features a protected “E-box” that houses multiple high-performance GPUs capable of processing several terabytes of sensor data per hour. The vehicle’s sensor suite includes LIDAR arrays, stereo camera pairs, color and infrared imaging, RADAR, and inertial measurement units that together provide 360-degree perception in off-road environments.

DARPA’s RACER program was launched in 2020 to develop off-road autonomy algorithms that enable unmanned vehicles to operate at or beyond human driving speeds in unstructured terrain. The first phase relied on smaller, 2-ton RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs) to develop the autonomy stack, while the second phase, which began in 2023, introduced the larger RHP as a combat-scale demonstrator. The program involves teams from the University of Washington, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, Overland AI, and others. The second phase also includes contracts, such as a $10.41 million award to the University of Washington to continue RACER algorithm development. DARPA maintains a semiannual cadence of large-scale experiments to continuously refine autonomy capabilities, moving from test environments in California’s Mojave Desert to the complex terrain of Texas military training areas.

During these tests, RACER vehicles demonstrated autonomous mobility across a 15-square-mile range of challenging terrain, including vegetation, slopes, rocks, ditches, and water crossings. The RHP completed over 48 kilometers of route-following runs while smaller RFVs achieved more than 150 autonomous miles during the same experiment series, with consistent results during both daytime and nighttime testing. Performance goals for Phase 2 included maintaining average autonomous speeds of around 29 km/h with minimal operator intervention—about one every 10 kilometers—approaching the operational tempo of manned combat vehicles such as the M1 Abrams. According to DARPA program manager Dr. Stuart Young, these capabilities are crucial for ensuring tactical mobility in conditions where roads, bridges, or mapped routes have been destroyed, requiring vehicles to operate independently across degraded terrain.

The M58 MICLIC integrated with the RHP is a long-proven U.S. Army system designed to create rapid passages through minefields. It uses a 350-foot explosive line charge composed of three 100-foot sections and one 50-foot section containing approximately 700 C4 blocks. The charge is launched by an MK22 five-inch rocket motor from an MK155 launcher mounted on an M200A1 trailer. When detonated, the charge clears a vehicle-width lane roughly 100 meters long. The system can be operated from a standoff distance of 65 to 95 meters and is compatible with both towed launchers and armored breaching vehicles such as the M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle. In this test, the RHP will tow and deploy the MICLIC autonomously, demonstrating whether autonomous platforms can effectively conduct mine-clearing tasks that traditionally expose engineers to high-risk environments.

This upcoming Army-DARPA collaboration occurs amid a broader global expansion of unmanned ground vehicle experimentation across both state and non-state actors. The U.S. Army’s work on the RACER platform parallels similar efforts worldwide, including Ukraine’s development of UGV battalions for reconnaissance, logistics, and assault missions, Russia’s testing of Marker and Uran robots, and NATO’s deployment of Estonia’s Milrem THeMIS armed UGVs in operational exercises. Nations such as Israel, Spain, Turkey, and China are also developing tactical and logistics UGVs with autonomous or semi-autonomous capabilities. The RACER Heavy Platform’s integration into a live breaching scenario represents an early operational test of advanced autonomy for U.S. combat engineering, showing how high-speed unmanned systems could eventually support or replace manned breaching operations, expand maneuver options, and reduce personnel risks in hazardous combat zones.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.