Well, it’s been quite the week for Forterra—and it’s only Tuesday. Less than a week after announcing that they’re teaming up with BAE, the ground autonomy company announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re officially unveiling a prototype of the DeepFires autonomous launcher—built with Oshkosh and RTX—at AUSA next week.
The autonomous launcher prototype—first teased back in March—includes a missile and launcher from RTX (the leader on the project), a base vehicle from Oshkosh, and is made (at least partially) autonomous using Forterra’s AutoDrive autonomy stack.
“DeepFires is more than a launcher, it is a generational step up in force projection with massed fires,” Chris Seifert, Forterra’s Head of Autonomous Strike, said in a statement.
On the ground: We just wrote about Forterra last week (slow down, guys), so we won’t bore you with too many details, but here are the brass tacks:
- The company was founded all the way back in 2002 as Robotic Research Autonomous Industries and rebranded to Forterra in early 2024.
- Their flagship product is vehicle autonomy software called AutoDrive, which it bills as a “full stack solution,” including hardware, software, and sensing. The idea is it can turn pretty much any vehicle into a drone.
- Forterra says AutoDrive has been integrated on a whole range of vehicles from big-time producers, including Polaris, General Dynamics, Mack, and Rheinmetall.
Just last week, the company signed a deal with BAE to prototype AutoDrive on its Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV)—a program with the Army worth up to $2.28B.
Speedy-quick: According to Seifert, DeepFires is a “mobile, autonomous launcher on a common platform that is configured for offensive strikes.”
- The whole thing will be built on the Oshkosh Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) A2 chassis, and is C-130 transportable. There will also be a heavy version of the launcher.
- The autonomous part of the thing is the base vehicle, built by Oshkosh—according to Seifert, it can be “operated autonomously or remotely controlled and is optionally crewed.”
- The weapons systems on the launcher will be built and integrated by Raytheon. According to Seifert, the launcher will initially be built to house IFPC and MFOM launch systems.
- Seifert clarified that the “weapon system to include fire control system is not autonomous and will require a human in the loop pursuant to DoD Directive 3000.09.”
Forterra says that the initial customer for DeepFires will be the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO). The collab between Forterra, Oshkosh, and RTX was first demoed at Project Convergence this spring—there, a prototype of the launcher successfully fired an RTX-made missile, developed for the US Army’s Joint Reduced Range Rocket program.
Go boom: The Army really, really wants an automated launcher—and fast. The service has been working for the past four years on an Autonomous Multi-domain Launcher (AML) through DEVCOM, and earlier this year issued a solicitation for a Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) from industry.
- The idea is to build an “autonomous/optionally crewed, highly mobile, air transportable, cross-domain fires launcher with the potential to augment or replace existing Army launchers.”
- The service is interested in both Heavy and Medium variants (we see you, DeepFires).
- For AML, the Army is looking for something that is “capable of convoy operations, autonomous way point navigation, tele-operation and remote launcher turret and fire control operation.”
In February, Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team leader Brig. Gen. Rory Crooks told Breaking Defense that an effective AML will likely come from industry. “I don’t see DEVCOM as being the way to introduce larger numbers into formations in the near future: That will be how we leverage industry,” he said.
Looks like it’s Forterra, Oshkosh, and RTX’s moment.