Autonomous Multidomain Launcher
The Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (AML) is a Army Futures Command Long Range Precision Fires Cross Function Team, US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center, and Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Science and Technology initiative to develop and demonstrate an autonomous, unmanned, highly mobile, C-130 transportable launcher. The prototype launcher will be capable of leader-follower autonomy, autonomous way point navigation, drive-by-wire, and remote launcher turret and fire control operation. It will be capable of launching longer munitions while remaining compatible with the current munitions.
The U.S. Army used an autonomous launcher in a 16 June 2021 demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona and two other simulated "islands", focused on how it might be deployed to take out enemy ships and other defensive systems in multidomain operations in the Indo-Pacific theater. A concept video shows C-130 transport aircraft landing on a strip on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The Autonomous Multidomain Launcher, or AML, comes off the C-130's ramp while a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, drives out of the other aircraft. The two launchers deploy as a manned-unmanned team to strategic points on the island. One launcher fires a simulated Precision Strike Missile or PrSM — the future Army Tactical Missile System replacement — to hit an enemy ship detected in the nearby ocean. The other fires an extended-range version of PrSM to take out an air defense system located on an enemy-occupied island.
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