ARA’s Sapper Featured in Defense News Weekly

November 14, 2024 ARA’s Sapper Featured in Defense News Weekly Defense News Weekly recently featured Applied Research Associates, Inc.’s (ARA) autonomous tracked vehicle platform, Sapper. Unveiled at the 2024 AUSA Annual Meeting, Sapper is a high mobility, autonomous ready, tracked platform designed with a common deck, built with modular mission payloads in mind to meet a wide range of missions, including autonomous mine clearance. “It’s all about keeping our soldiers safe in this case,” said Matt Fordham, ARA vice president and division manager. “So the dull, dirty, dangerous tasks are what we want to take on. And we can do that autonomously and meet the mission set so we can move our troops through in a safe way afterwards.” In addition to Sapper, ARA highlighted other technologies at AUSA supporting the Army’s Human-Machine Integrated Formations Initiative, including ARA’s Mission Planning and Management System (MPMS), an innovative solution to coordinate autonomous systems, subsystems, and sensors. The Army’s Human-Machine Integration Initiative aims to integrate autonomy and robotic systems into formations in order to provide new capabilities that will help the Army achieve its goals for multi-domain operations. Sapper is the result of ARA’s application of autonomy and advanced systems engineering to address threats in a rapidly evolving technological battle space. View the full Defense News Weekly segment here. About ARA Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) was founded in 1979, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to offer science and engineering research to solve problems of national importance. ARA delivers leading-edge products and innovative solutions for national defense, energy, homeland security, aerospace, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing. With over 2,300 employee-owners at locations in the U.S. and Canada, ARA offers a broad range of technical expertise in defense technologies, civil engineering, computer software and simulation, systems analysis, biomedical engineering, environmental technologies, and blast testing and measurement. SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Contact us for more information RECENT ARA NEWS ARA Unveils Next-Gen Maritime Defense Technologies at 2026 Sea-Air-Space March 24, 2026 ARA will showcase innovative defense technologies supporting maritime dominance at the 2026 Sea-Air-Space Conference and Exposition, April 19–22 in National Harbor, Read More » ARA to Demonstrate Space Domain Capabilities at Space Symposium March 17, 2026 ARA will highlight its advances in space technologies at the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 13-16. Join experts in Booth Read More » ARA Promotes James Myers to Senior Vice President January 26, 2026 ARA is pleased to announce the promotion of James Myers to senior vice president where he will lead Corporate Development to Read More »