US Army Tests Self-Driving Ford F-250 With Drone-Killing Shotgun Turret
Last week, the U.S. Army tested a self-driving Ford F-250 equipped with a shotgun-toting, drone-destroying turret during a live-fire exercise at Fort Bragg, bringing close-range defense to heavy engineering missions.
The vehicle is part of Project Sandhills 2.0, an Army program used to develop self-driving platforms that navigate hazardous combat zones to breach obstacles, clear landmines, and slice through wire entanglements ahead of advancing troops. While early iterations focused on earth-moving and route clearance, modern combat lessons noted an immediate vulnerability to lethal FPV attack quadcopters. Therefore, by mounting an automated defense system to a commercial heavy-duty truck, engineers created a self-protecting machine that is truly built Ford tough.
Central to the Ford demonstrator is Forterra’s AutoDrive system, which transforms standard commercial F-250sinto fully autonomous vehicles capable of navigation, perception, and obstacle clearance. Relying on readily available commercial components makes the chassis significantly easier and cheaper to maintain or...
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