The Israeli robot company Roboteam has won a prestigious contract award worth $25 million to deliver and support small, lightweight MTGR Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots to the U.S. Air Force. The contract funds the delivery and support of the robots through 2022.
In its quest for a new, small EOD robot the Air Force was looking for an off the shelf system, that has at least three years of operational experience. Such back packable small robot weighing less than 30 pounds (13.6 kg) and be useful in situations where larger robots cannot access the scene. The Air Force required the system to be operated by a single person, being able able to respond to incidents involving unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IED), as well as conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in hazardous environments.
The Micro-Tactical Ground robot (MTGR) from Roboteam has been in competition with several U.S.-Developed systems which have already been widely used by the U.S. military, such as iRobot SUGV and QinetiQ North America Dragon Runner. Lighter and more agile, particularly in complex environments such as culverts, indoor and underground settings, MTGR has repeatedly won new orders in recent months with the U.S. Special Forces, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in Poland and in the UK. Roboteam’s Maryland-based U.S. subsidiary will produce the MTGR robots for the U.S. customers and support them throughout the world.
