Teledyne FLIR Defense has received new orders worth $62.1 million from the US Armed Services for its advanced, multi-mission robots, raising the value of the original Man Transportable Robot System Increment II (MTRS Inc. II) contract from roughly $190 million to more than $250 million.
The US Army, Navy, and other command centers placed orders for nearly 500 more Centaur Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), including additional spares, antennas, and payload mounting kits.
The Centaur is a medium-sized UGV that provides a standoff capability to detect, confirm, identify, and dispose of hazards. Weighing roughly 160 pounds, the Interoperability Protocol (IOP)-compliant robot features an advanced EO/IR camera suite, a manipulator arm that reaches over six feet, and the ability to climb stairs.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams use the Teledyne FLIR Centaur UGV to disable unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices, and landmines. Operators can quickly attach different sensors and payloads to the robot to address other missions, including Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats.
“Our Centaur platform continues to prove itself as one of the most versatile and sought after tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to support America’s military,” said Tom Frost, general manager of Unmanned Ground Systems at Teledyne FLIR Defense. “Our team is honored to play a role in providing technology US warfighters depend on for risky and sometimes deadly missions.
In 2017, the Army chose Centaur as its MTRS Inc. II solution for a multi-year program of record. Since then, other US military branches have opted to deploy Centaur to their EOD units as a new or replacement ground robot system. Since 2020, Teledyne FLIR has announced orders totaling more than 1,800 Centaurs from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
“Centaur also can be used effectively for unexploded ordnance clearance in hotspots such as Ukraine, and with global security threats on the rise, allied nations can leverage this multi-purpose robot to support a wide array of manned/unmanned operations,” Frost added.
