REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. - Normally trucked into forward operating bases or wherever war fighters were in need of its services, the MINOTAUR has well-served members of the U.S. armed forces.
However, the mountainous terrain and unimproved roads of Afghanistan presented a
transporation challenge. War fighters needed a more rapidly deployable MINOTAUR and that is when the Army's Rapid Equipping Force partnered with the AMRDEC's Protoype Integration Facility to develop an uprade and get it out to the troops in only six months.
The MINOTAUR is a robotically-controlled mine roller vehicle employed to protect war fighters from improvised explosive devices.
In 2011, the Prototype Integration Facility began serving as the lead systems integrator on the project. Equipping the Bobcat T110 with robotic controls and cameras, and a mine roller and rake system, PIF personnel delivered more than 65 of the systems to field and provided training and other support directly to war fighters.
Adding the sling load upgrade to the MINOTAUR so helicopters could be used to transport them was a challenge the PIF team readily accepted.
Coogan Preston, the PIF government project lead for MINOTAUR, said the addition of sling load capability allows for the MINOTAUR to be deployed in more remote locations.
"Special operation troops in theater required a more efficient procedure to quickly transfer the MINOTAUR to and from the fight without moving equipment and personnel in ground convoy," Preston said. "In less than six months, the PIF designed, fabricated, installed, and tested a sling load system found to be compatible with CH-47 and UH-60 rotorcraft and will be providing 20 additional kits for installation on existing systems currently deployed in Afghanistan."
The Army Rapid Equipping Force harnesses current and emerging technologies to provide rapid solutions to the urgently required capabilities of Army forces employed globally.
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AMRDEC is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command or RDECOM, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC delivers it.
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