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Europe’s first autonomous military convoy recently finished its final demonstration in Spain, according to media reports.
At the showcase in Seville, the European Union-funded project reportedly demonstrated a fleet of autonomous ground vehicles that performed coordinated logistics supported by a navigation system that uses artificial intelligence (AI).
The project is called Convoy Operations with Manned-unManneD Systems, or the COMMANDS consortium, and is coordinated by the Spanish aerospace and defence firm Sener.
It was developed by a group of 21 European partners and funded by a €24.8 million investment from the European Defence Fund.
The COMMANDS group says it coordinates manned and unmanned systems on the ground and in the air, and that it improves the way military vehicles operate in “unstructured” environments and with degraded or weak satellite signals.
The units in Spain were reportedly controlled by the Naviground system. Developed by Sener, it uses a combination of sensors, AI, machine learning, and 5G telecommunication networks so a ground vehicle can understand the environment around it and move autonomously.
Sener previously tested the Naviground system on a series of military vehicles that included a logistics assistant and several tanks.
In a promotional video, the company described the system as “one of the great secret weapons” for enhancing how military vehicles work together and exchange information.
The system appears to be part of a broader plan to modernise Europe’s military systems. The European Commission listed autonomous drones, unmanned aerial systems, and AI-driven defence applications as some of the critical gaps it needs to fill in a planning document on the EU’s defence capabilities.
The paper said that the European defence industry needs to be able to “design, develop, manufacture and deliver these products and technologies faster and at scale”.
Sener did not respond to a Euronews Next request for additional details.