DARPA Actually Re-invents the Wheel!

DARPA, the Pentagon's mad science wing, is revolutionizing how ground vehicles move across rough terrain. Its latest breakthrough: round tires that transform into triangular tank tracks in two seconds, without the vehicle needing to come to a stop. The three things that matter most for tanks are firepower, protection, and mobility. A combat vehicle must pack enough firepower to destroy enemies. It must have the armor to take hits and keep chugging along. And it must have the mobility to maneuver against (and often around) adversaries. Tank weapons and armor have made major gains in the last 30 years. Mobility, not so much. Ground combat vehicles still use the same track- or wheel-based configuration, with the same pros and cons for each approach. Tracks are more useful for sand and rough terrain, while wheels allow speedy movement over road networks. But what if you could have both?

DARPA’s new Reconfigurable Wheel Track (RWT) program is a set of wheels that can turn into tracks on the fly. In the video above, a Humvee equipped with RWT changes from wheels to tracks while in motion, allowing the vehicle to quickly self-optimize as the terrain changes. The round road wheel transforms into a pyramid-shaped track that increases surface contact with the terrain, lowering the vehicle’s ground pressure and giving it greater traction. Vehicles equipped with RWT will be less constrained by terrain and better at maneuvering against opponents. Consider the following scenario: A U.S. armored column is flying down a highway in the desert, a narrow strip of asphalt among thousands of square miles of sand dunes. The column suddenly encounters an enemy force, straight ahead, defending the road. Rather than sticking on the road and driving right into the enemy’s defenses, the column reconfigures to tracks without stopping, peels off the road, and veers off into the desert. The next thing the enemy knows, he’s being hit with a surprise attack to his flank.

Credits:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a21932118/darpa-wheels-become-tank-tracks/