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Army picks six robot-mule makers for a 2027 unit trial that will shape its requirements
US Army picked six companies to deliver production-ready robot mules for an operational assessment with an Army unit in early 2027. That trial is meant to set the requirements, so BLADE's TRL 9 rating for its Hunter WOLF is a company claim soldiers still have to test.
The Product Desk · Product desk
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What happened
- The Infantry Last Tactical Mile program covers the stretch between rear logistics units and the forward line of own troops, where soldiers moving ammunition forward or carrying wounded back can be exposed to fire.
- BLADE, the robotics company formerly known as HDT, joins Maren-Go, Overland AI, Forterra, Hendrick's Motorsports and American Rheinmetall in the prototype effort.
- BLADE says its six-wheeled diesel-electric Hunter WOLF can autonomously carry up to 2,800 pounds and handle 60 percent grades and 40 percent side slopes.
- The Army made its selections through prototype Other Transaction Agreements.
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Why it matters
- contradiction BLADE sells the Hunter WOLF as field-proven and TRL 9, but the Army is treating it as a prototype and will judge it against requirements it sets after the trial.
- decision Each of the six now has to choose what to put in front of an Army unit in early 2027, because what soldiers find will feed the requirements any production decision rests on.
- constraint A vehicle proven on only one of the two ILTM jobs starts behind, because the Army will judge both resupply and casualty evacuation in difficult terrain and contested conditions.
In May, soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Polk received BLADE's Hunter WOLF vehicles under the Army's Ground Optionally Autonomous Transport effort. According to the company, they trained to operate and maintain them in different mission configurations [10]. BLADE also reported evaluations with the 10th Mountain and the 101st Airborne during 2026, plus an August event with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Polk, Louisiana [16].
BLADE's pitch goes further than that. The company calls the Hunter WOLF ready for production and rates it at Technology Readiness Level 9 [1]. TRL 9 sits at the top of the military's readiness scale and indicates a system demonstrated in an operational environment [2]. "The Hunter WOLF is engineered, manufactured, field-proven and ready to support warfighters in challenging contested environments," said Tom Van Doren, president of robotics at BLADE [3].
The Army is buying something more cautious. Defence Blog reported that the vendors are expected to supply prototypes ready for production, for use in demonstrations and in an Army unit's operational assessment in early 2027 [12]. The results are meant to help the Army determine its requirements and inform a potential production decision [13]. The effort is a competitive prototype program [17].
So the hardware arrives first and the requirements come second [13]. The Army is handing vehicles to a unit and watching what happens. The reporting does not say the Army made TRL 9 a condition of entry, and it does not include readiness ratings for the other five vehicles [1][5]. The bar on the record is "production-ready" plus the Army's own test of whether the vehicles can reliably handle resupply and casualty evacuation in difficult terrain and contested conditions [12][14]. That test also applies to a vehicle whose rating already claims an operational demonstration [2][14].
BLADE's case leans on flexibility. The company says the vehicle can supply electrical power to other equipment and accept different payloads, so one platform can be set up for resupply or for casualty evacuation [15]. Those are the two jobs ILTM was set up to automate [4]. BLADE says the Hunter WOLF has been in service since 2017 and was upgraded in 2025. It also says the vehicle has been through more than 60 field exercises and has supported US Marine Corps, Australian and Ukrainian forces [9].
If you are pitching into this program, or judging one of these vehicles for a unit, I'd sort every readiness claim on two axes. The first is who logged the hours: vendor crews, or soldiers who also did the maintenance. The second is mission coverage: one configuration shown, or both resupply and casualty evacuation from the same vehicle. Vendor crews on one mission is the weakest evidence. Soldier hours on one mission leave the second configuration unproven, and vendor hours on both leave maintenance unproven. Soldier-maintained vehicles doing both jobs are what the early-2027 assessment is built to find [12][14].
What to watch
- Whether the requirements the Army writes after the early-2027 assessment name a readiness level, or set performance and maintenance tests instead.
- Readiness, payload and terrain claims from Maren-Go, Overland AI, Forterra, Hendrick's Motorsports and American Rheinmetall ahead of the demonstrations.
- Whether the Army narrows the six vendors before the unit assessment or carries all of them through to the production decision.