By George Kaminsky

BLADE, the name HDT Robotics now uses, announced on October 8 that its Hunter WOLF multi-mission unmanned ground vehicle has been selected for Phase II of the GroundBreaker 1 demonstration. The selection followed a government technical evaluation of the company’s Phase I solution brief.

Phase II is a live hardware demonstration scheduled for October 19-23 at Camp Grafton, North Dakota. Government evaluators will assess technology maturity, operational readiness and how well each system works across domains.

BLADE’s robotics president, Tom Van Doren, called Hunter WOLF a mature, mission-ready platform that has already been tested alongside warfighters. The company says the vehicle is meant to reduce soldier workload, extend operational reach and keep personnel farther from dangerous tasks.

Only members of the Department of War’s Drone OTA Consortium could respond to the solicitation. According to Valley News Live, whitepapers were scored out of 100 points: 40 for technical merit and architecture, 35 for delivery and demonstration readiness, 15 for cost and affordability, and 10 for past performance. The process leads to a demonstration and live pitch, and then, by invitation only, a full technical and cost proposal.

The Pentagon is looking for complete systems that can handle one or more missions, including reconnaissance, tactical logistics, explosive ordnance disposal and route clearance, search and rescue, perimeter security and casualty evacuation. ORBATMag previously covered the demonstration’s setup. BLADE is one of the first vendors to announce it has advanced; others have not yet said whether they made the cut.

Sources: Soldier Systems (BLADE release); Valley News Live; Soldier Systems (solicitation).