Military ground robots now come with amphibious skills
By Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2025
TROIA, Portugal — Rheinmetall Canada said it has successfully tested an unmanned ground vehicle in a novel scenario, plunging the robot into the Atlantic Ocean to see it crawl out on a sandy beach here as part of a NATO military exercise.
The vehicle was the latest version of the company’s Mission Master series, shipped to Portugal to partake in NATO’s Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Unmanned Systems, or REPMUS, from Sept. 1-26 in local waters.
The drill, led by the Portuguese Navy, brought together 24 participating countries that tested 276 unmanned systems for maritime operations.
For the first time abroad, the Canadian-made UGV successfully navigated from high seas to shore, demonstrating its potential for amphibious operations.
“The Mission Master was embarked on a warship that navigated into challenging waters and was dropped into the sea, with a crane, and its mission was to effectively navigate back to the beach near the testing site,” Étienne Rancourt, director of international business development at Rheinmetall Canada, told Defense News here.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/global/europe/2025/09/24/military-ground-robots-now-come-with-amphibious-skills/
