A Jackal patrol vehicle has been shown acting as a mothership for an uncrewed ground vehicle, while a second carried precision strike drones, in displays the Devon manufacturer Supacat staged at the DVD exhibition, the company stated.
Central to the stand at UTAC Millbrook was the Jackal 3E Extenda, the third-generation evolution of the High Mobility Transporter family already being delivered to the British Army, whose removable Extenda unit lets it convert between four-wheel and six-wheel configurations.
Two Jackal 3 Extenda vehicles were used for the integration work, which ran on an open hardware and software architecture driven by an UltraEAK suite built to the Generic Vehicle Architecture standard. One hosted a collaboration with ARX Robotics, carrying a Gereon uncrewed ground vehicle, and the other demonstrated the integration of Barkhan autonomous precision strike drones from Harmattan AI.
A third Jackal 3 appeared on the Babcock stand in an indirect fire support configuration, fitted with the Ground Deployed Advanced Mortar System and its 120mm mortar.
Kevin Carpenter, head of business development at Supacat, said: “DVD is one of the most important dates in our calendar, and this year showed the strength of interest in what Supacat and our partners are building.”
Supacat has had a busy autumn, having since been shortlisted for the trials stage of the Light Mobility Vehicle competition to replace the Army’s Land Rover fleet, working in support of Babcock International.
Another piece of good news for Jackle and Supacat. I do like the vehicle.
…. or even the Jackal. Duh!
Couldn’t find anything on their site covering this.
I am coming round to the decision that the Army needs two vehicle based mortar systems. One mounted on a light mobility vehicle like the Jackal and another heavier unit based on either a Patria or Boxer featuring a 120mm NEMO type of automated gun-mortar. Where the lighter unit is used by the light division, whilst the other supports the mechanised brigades.
Agree in full although I would still want to retain the 81mm at Coy group level and with the 120″s held within Fire Suppirt Coy at Bn. In an ideal world the Heavy Mech Bn’s ( all four of them remaining 👎) would get AMOS effectively doubling their fire power but would be very happy as you say with NEMO too . Was slightly concerned that NEMO Boxer didn’t feature at this year’s DVD like 2024 although couldn’t attend so could be wrong .Whatever we do with the imminent loss of 30mm RARDEN on Warrior our Mech/AI Bn’s will need all the additional firepower they can get so for heavens sake let’s stop talking and just get on and do it now. 🇬🇧👎
We will probably be in the same initial position as we were in Afghan, where we didn’t have effective shaped frame charges to blow holes in the mud brick walls, and the Warrior’s/Scimitar’s 30mm Rarden was poking nice holes in the wall. Where instead we started using Javelin, until it become obviously too expensive. Which forced Command to get us more effective frame charges. I foresee a similar issue, we will have to fall back on what we have, namely NLAW and Javelin, until it becomes too pricey and burns through stocks.
Yeah totally agree on the 81, like the GPMG it is still a very effective weapon that is relatively man portable, especially compared to a 120mm mortar and its much heavier rounds. Patria who design and build the NEMO system, have some very impressive demo videos. Where the weapon is used both indirectly and directly at both fixed and moving targets. It would definitely be a significant organic force multiplier for Mech and AI.