Robotic mules remain in development limbo.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

Last year, the Army tested robotic mules in the snow in Alaska. Later, soldiers drove them through the jungles of Hawaii. Then they also were put through the paces in desert conditions at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Four semi-autonomous vehicles capable of carrying heavy loads for foot soldiers were even sent in 2011 to Afghanistan where they were employed in combat.

'And we've been doing demonstrations ever since," said Stu Hatfield, chief of the robotics branch, Department of the Army, G-8.

Robot proponents inside and outside the military are asking when the demonstrations will end and the fielding begin.

Known as the squad multipurpose equipment transport (SMET), it's an idea that emerged from the ashes of the Army's Future Combat System modernization program. After FCS was canceled in 2009, the Army continued to provide some funding for the concept, Hatfield said at the National Defense Industrial Association's Ground Robotics Capabilities conference.

"It's 2016 and we have been going at it a little while," he said, acknowledging that there has been some frustration that the idea is not moving forward. "We are looking forward to that being a new-start program," he added.

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The Army has suffered from the problem of not knowing exactly what it wanted as far as a robot that can take the load off dismounted troops, he said.

"Requirements are still emerging," said Bryan McVeigh, project manager for force protection at program executive office combat support and combat service support. It will be McVeigh's job to field a SMET program of record, if he should ever be given the green light.

The Army's current plans call for the SMET to come in two or three sizes. Army Training and Doctrine Command is working on the requirements, with an engineering, manufacturing and development phase beginning about 2019 and lasting three years. They would be either tele-operated or fully autonomous, Scott Davis, program executive officer for combat support and combat service support, said at an industry conference in 2015.

McVeigh said: "Our challenge for SMET is that it is a workhorse. Do we want it to be just the ability to carry soldiers' equipment? There is a huge advantage to doing that."

But it can be so much more. It could do casualty evacuation. It can be armed and serve as a remote weapons station. The Army engineering community is considering placing a significant portion of its payload on the mule, he added.

"How do we make this a...