John Deere not only makes Gator utility vehicles for farm, commercial and recreational purposes but for the military too. This is one of the new Military R-Gator (Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle) which is rigged to be completely remote controlled and is equipped with a camera to send back what it is “seeing.” In the video clips I’ve posted you can see it in action.

• A COTS system, R-Gator can be operated in either manned or unmanned mode in day or night missions
• Example missions: 8-hour stationary silent RECON mode, point man reconnaissance, roving patrols, transportation of ammo/ supplies, casualty evacuation, remote deployment of smaller UGVs and UAVs, large scale IED disposition

I spoke to Dan Smith, Military Affairs Mgr. for John Deere. He gave us some history of utility vehicles in the military which started in the Vietnam War with the MULE. Today John Deere is a major supplier to the military. He says the the latest A-2 M-Gator will do 32 mph and is the unit that the R-Gator is built on. They’ll be available to the military in August. You can find my interview with Dan below the video clips.

In this clip you can see an optional unit that automatically unloads whatever you want the unmanned vehicle to deposit.