Military plans to buy new ground weapon that complies with landmine treaty

The Pentagon’s research arm intends to award a sole source contract to munitions maker Textron Defense Systems to accelerate development of a ground weapon that can detect, track and target enemies in compliance with the Ottawa Treaty, also known as the anti-personnel mine ban convention, contracting documents show.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract would involve building a ground weapon and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform in 12 months.

It also will use technology developed under a Pentagon venture funding project, the Adaptable Sensor System program, that seeks to build military sensor technology in a fraction of the three to eight years such systems typically take to be completed.

Textron previously received a DARPA contract to evaluate the technology developed under this program, the document said. “Textron’s existing knowledge of the ADAPT system is critical to successfully developing, integrating and demonstrating a smart mine field in the 12-month time frame,” the documents state.

Textron’s so-called smart ground weapons systems can be discharged or turned off, reducing the possibility that lethal mines will litter the battlefield after a mission and wind up killing civilians.

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