Overland AI has secured a $20 million production contract to provide autonomous ground vehicles for resupply within Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems.

Initial deliveries are scheduled to begin approximately nine months after the contract award. Byron Boots, Overland AI co-founder and CEO, stated that more than a dozen vehicles would be provided under the deal. The agreement, structured as an other transaction agreement, includes hardware for the uncrewed ground vehicles, OverWatch and OverDrive software, spare parts, and services.

The Marine Air Defense Integrated System is designed as a maneuverable apparatus for detecting and defeating adversary drones and manned aircraft. The system consists of two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles equipped with sensors and weapons such as 30mm cannons, Stinger missiles, and electronic warfare tools. Overland AI plans to integrate its autonomous ground vehicle into this system to provide a resupply capability for its other vehicles.

The autonomous ground vehicles are not intended to replace the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. "Autonomous ground vehicles are uncrewed, but they also have software and sensors and compute on board, which allows them to autonomously move through terrain and on the battlefield," Boots said. "One is that they're less susceptible to contested comms, they can continue to operate even if they lose connectivity. And second, it really allows for scaling. A single operator can task multiple vehicles if each of those vehicles has autonomous capabilities."

Boots described the vehicle as a "fully autonomous" platform that can perceive, represent, plan through, and control itself. "So you can tell it where to go, and it will make the decisions on board in order to get there," he said. A human operator can take control of the system if needed. Overland AI has integrated about 30 payloads onto its autonomous ground vehicles, with initial applications focused on resupply. "You can put pretty much anything that you want onto these vehicles, you know, within the [size, weight and power] capacity," Boots said. Payload applications also include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The contract was spurred by the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) initiative, which is managed by the Pentagon's Research and Engineering directorate.