UK and US consider assisted carriage systems

Lockheed Martin's Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) is being lined up for a limited deployment with US forces to Afghanistan in 2010 in a bid to reduce the burden carried by soldiers in the field.

Speaking to Jane's at the Association of the US Army exhibition in Washington, DC, on 5 October, Lockheed Martin executives said the army was attempting to raise funding to send two SMSS vehicles to Afghanistan with a light infantry unit.

The SMSS completed limited user tests and a military utility assessment in August following from tests at Fort Benning, Georgia, in November and December 2008.

A capabilities production document is currently under consideration at the Headquarters of the Department of the US Army and if SMSS becomes an official programme, Lockheed Martin told Jane's it would expect an initial requirement for around seven systems.

Elsewhere, Lockheed Martin has confirmed that it has offered its Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) exoskeleton to the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) Reducing the Burden on the Dismounted Soldier Capability Vision. The MoD programme is expected to consider a number of assisted carriage systems.