The Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), headquartered at the Detroit Arsenal, Warren, Mich., is the nation's laboratory for advanced military automotive technology. TARDEC develops and integrates technology solutions to improve the effectiveness of the current Army force and realize the superior capability of the future force. With more than 50 component laboratories, TARDEC is home to one of the best collections of advanced vehicle and vehicle support systems research and testing laboratories in the world.
TARDEC provides full-service life-cycle engineering support to the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, the Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support, and the Program Manager for Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team, and supports more than 2800 Army systems and many joint warfighter development programs.
At the recommendation of a committee led by Chrysler Corporation's president K.T. Keller, TARDEC was originally formed as the Tank-Automotive Components Laboratory in 1946. From the beginning, the Components Laboratory spawned many successful collaborative working relationships. As part of the current TARDEC organization, the National Automotive Center (NAC) works with private industry to leverage commercial automotive technologies for military use. With more than 60 percent of U.S. automotive engineers living and working in Michigan, TARDEC resides in the heart of a concentrated source of automotive intellectual property.
With four main focus areas, TARDEC's technical staff leads research in ground vehicle survivability, mobility, intelligent systems, and maneuver support and sustainment.
The Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility (GVPM) area is the Army's center for research, development, test and engineering of ground vehicle technologies. As the Army's ground mobility expert, the GVPM area is a key component of ground mobility in the theater of combat for the current force as well as for Future Combat Systems (FCS).
The Survivability area identifies, develops, and integrates technologies that preserve manned combat platforms from a wide range of threats. This allows TARDEC to produce ground vehicle platforms with affordable, manufacturable armor protection against objective threats at reduced weights. This focus area also seeks technology to anticipate and identify possible threats to soldiers and ground vehicles.
Intelligent Ground Systems is the solution to operational requirements that utilize intelligent, automated ground systems capable of engaging threats while interacting with the operator.
Through autonomous perception and navigation, intelligent tactical behavior, command and control, Intelligent Ground Systems seeks to enhance the Army's capability to diagnose possible battlefield threats.
Condition Based Maintenance (CBM), a new methodology of maintaining the Army's ground vehicle fleet, is based on analysis of operating and maintenance data collected from each platform and aggregated across a fleet of platforms and/or components.
The information is used to improve the capability to diagnose and isolate faults and predict future failures; provide more cost-effective overhaul of platforms and components; focus product improvements on root causes of cost and readiness drivers; and improve platform readiness and availability.
The ability to diagnose and repair onsystem problems and failures increases the Army's ability to transport assets and personnel to areas where it is engaged in combat and peacekeeping missions. CBM develops technologies, processes and capabilities to address this need.
Recently, two TARDEC-led projects—the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMMV) Egress Assistance Trainer (HEAT) and the Improvised Explosive Device Mine Roller Self Protective Adaptive Roller Kit (SPARK)—were honored as two of the top ten Army Greatest Inventions (AGIs) for their lifesaving features.
