American Rheinmetall wins U.S. Army contract for autonomous hybrid supply vehicles

Key Points

• American Rheinmetall awarded an 18-month U.S. Army contract under Project Sustainment to develop autonomous hybrid ground vehicles based on Harbinger's platform.
• Vehicles will autonomously transport supplies to and from frontline troops, developed with partners Forterra and Primordial Labs.

American Rheinmetall announced that the U.S. Army has selected Harbinger's plug-in hybrid vehicle platform as the basis for an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle contract. The 18-month effort covers the development and delivery of uncrewed vehicles under the Army's Project Sustainment program.

The contract runs through the National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC) , a government-industry partnership that allows the Army to fund experimental vehicle technology development outside its traditional, slower acquisition process. American Rheinmetall will serve as the prime contractor, holding primary responsibility for delivering the finished vehicles, while the engineering work is distributed across multiple specialized partners.

Addressing a Growing Battlefield Challenge

Project Sustainment tackles a problem that has become increasingly urgent as militaries worldwide observe drones and precision weapons targeting the essential but vulnerable task of supplying frontline troops. The unmanned ground vehicles built under this contract are designed to autonomously transport supplies to and from the forward line of troops —the point on a battlefield closest to enemy contact. This reduces the number of soldiers required to physically drive trucks carrying fuel, ammunition, or food through territory where enemy drones or ambushes could strike at any moment.

The Vehicle Platform: Harbinger's Hybrid Chassis

The vehicle platform comes from Harbinger, a commercial vehicle manufacturer based in Southern California and Texas. Harbinger originally built its business developing hybrid-electric chassis for delivery trucks and other medium-duty commercial vehicles before adapting that technology for military applications.

Harbinger's defense-oriented platform, sometimes marketed under the name Praesidia, is designed to be flexible and "up-fit ready." The underlying chassis can be reconfigured with different equipment and mission packages depending on the needs of a specific Army unit, eliminating the need for entirely custom-built vehicles for each mission profile.

Earlier reporting from The Defense Post described a related Harbinger hybrid platform capable of supplying up to 350 kilowatts of exportable power—electricity the vehicle can generate and share with other equipment in the field. This capability could allow these supply trucks to double as mobile power sources for forward operating positions in addition to hauling cargo.

Industry Perspective

John Harris, Co-founder and CEO of Harbinger, framed the Army's selection as validation of a broader strategy: adapting proven commercial vehicle technology for military use rather than designing an entirely new platform from scratch.

"The Harbinger hybrid vehicle platform exemplifies how proven commercial technologies can be rapidly adapted to meet the evolving needs of the U.S. military," Harris said. "By partnering with American Rheinmetall, we're bringing together advanced vehicle platforms, scalable manufacturing, and proprietary battery technology to deliver autonomous-ready vehicles that reduce risk to soldiers while enhancing military operational effectiveness."

Technology Partners

Turning a hybrid delivery truck chassis into an autonomous military vehicle required specialized technology partners beyond Harbinger's vehicle expertise:

• Forterra supplies the autonomous driving software that enables the vehicles to navigate and operate with minimal direct human control. The technology is described as enabling distributed, mission-aware, and resilient operations in contested environments—giving the vehicle enough onboard intelligence to continue functioning and making sensible decisions even when communication links to human operators become unreliable or jammed.

• Primordial Labs contributes a human-machine interface called Anura, a system that converts natural-language voice commands into instructions the robotic vehicle can execute. This allows soldiers to direct the vehicle through spoken commands rather than a complex touchscreen or joystick interface, reducing cognitive burden on troops in combat environments and shortening training time for effective operation.

Broader Strategic Context

Jim Schirmer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at American Rheinmetall, positioned the award as expanding the company's broader footprint in the ground robotics sector rather than treating it as an isolated contract.

"This award expands America..."