With a SWaP in between a quad and regular 4×4, the UNAC Rider seems ideally suited to carry out robotics missions on the battlefield. Safran Electronic & Defense will soon provide an automation package to the RIDER, a vehicle initially designed for reconnaissance and support missions in rapid deployment and special forces units. The first Rider vehicles have been delivered to the 11 French Airborne Brigade. The demonstration of this automation system was successfully shown before DGA and French armed forces representatives in May 2022. Backed by these promising results, UNAC and Safran Electronics & Defense, will start a new phase to turn the vehicle into an optionally manned platform. Safran solutions leverage from the innovative project FURIOUS won in 2017 aiming at delivering a robotic solution based on a UGV and a drone integrated in an infantry platoon. The Safran/UNAC robotic Rider will be part of the holistic assessment of robotics technologies made by the French army in the frame of the Vulcain project.
by Marc Chassillan