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Australian tech company Ungoverned has announced the pitch of a unique self-propelled tracked infantry platform to the international defence market and, potentially, for Australian Defence Force personnel.
The Vendetta UV-4.2 Tactical, an electric all-terrain platform capable of 42km/h top speed and a range of 21 kilometres, is envisioned to improve the mobility, speed and range of dismounted infantry in modern battlefield environments.
The Vendetta features a swappable battery with 3.5-hour charge time and has already reportedly garnered orders from the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, USA and Australia.
Ungoverned chief executive and founder Dan Baldwin, speaking exclusively with Defence Connect, said the company is currently completing orders from several countries for civilian and military versions of the system.
“The Vendetta is really quite efficient over rugged terrain, complex terrain or terrain that may be narrow, long grass, rocky, logs, all that sort of stuff, sand, of course, and even snow,” he said.
“(We can see its use in operations for) reconnaissance and surveillance. It’s not pitched toward any kind of weaponising. It’s more mobility over difficult terrain.
“It is compact, lightweight. It has a broad footprint. The ground pressure is significantly less than a human foot; because of that broad footprint even though the Vendetta weighs around 30 kilograms.
“When you’re talking about negotiating or navigating across sand, soft sand, it really floats over pretty much any terrain that’s under it … The initial interest was (for a solution for) that material littoral space between water and bush.
“It has a swappable, centrally mounted battery that can be swapped out in seconds. Secondary batteries can be placed in backpacks or building a rack on the Vendetta itself to carry a spare battery would not be too difficult. Each battery will get you approximately 21 kilometres range.”
It’s understood that the system was previously shown to the Australian Department of Defence and RICO (Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office) in December 2023.
“We’ve made sales and we’ve had a lot of interest in UAE. And there’s a combination of interest both in sport and recreation, which sort of led us to defence,” Baldwin said.
“Australia’s Defence Department knocked on our door on several occasions trying to get us to a couple of the various allied expos and eventually we conducted a demonstration for those guys and that went very, very well.
“The Vendetta could potentially increase the dismounted soldiers’ speed … up to seven, eight times their speed and that’s over difficult terrain as well. We’re not talking about on paved areas, of course.
“The new Vendetta has a top speed of 42km per house. It has a lot more torque (than previous models). The previous one was tested with about an 80-kilogram rider on it. With these ones, they’ll probably be able to handle closer to 115kg or 120kg which could be above and beyond what’s required, but it just depends on who’s using it, where the application is.
“Like any tool, most of them have a specific task. You wouldn’t necessarily be issued with one of these just because you’re enlisted (for every soldier). But you could certainly drop it out of a plane and have that dropped into a certain location, whether that’s for someone else to get on it and move quickly elsewhere, or whether that was a paratrooper also jumping out of an aircraft with it, either attached or separately. That’s not out of the question.”
The system features throttle and braking control via handheld remote controller, as well as individual modulation of acceleration ramping and braking ramping under entry, medium and expert settings.
The company is also reportedly investigating the Vendetta’s weight distribution and ability to travel in explosively mined battlefield environments.
“We’re hoping to get several units (available) for the purpose of putting an improvised explosive device of some description or something similar beneath them and filming it just to see what kind of shrapnel effect would happen,” Baldwin said.
“It’s certainly not a clearance device, it’s not mine-safe or mine-proof, and it’s not designed for clearing mines either. The thinking was more along the lines of ground pressure. For example, if you consider a single human footprint, even with the additional system weight, the load on a Vendetta is distributed across a much broader contact area, which may reduce point-loading on the ground and therefore potentially lower the likelihood of triggering certain pressure-activated devices.”
