Amphibious Combat Vehicle Design Competition

Ricardo Awarded DARPA Contract to Stage FANG Challenge
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VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP — Ricardo, Inc., Monday announced it has been selected by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to stage the FANG Challenge, a series of three competitions designed to produce the Fast, Adaptable, Next-Generation Ground vehicle.

FANG will be a new heavy, amphibious, infantry fighting vehicle with functional requirements intended to mirror the U.S. Marine Corps’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle.

Ricardo provides strategic consulting and engineering expertise to the world’s major automakers and suppliers, as well as manufacturers in the military, commercial, off-highway, and clean-energy sectors.

“Ricardo is proud to be working with DARPA on this ambitious program, and it further builds on our portfolio of work with FANG and the United States military,” said Robert Ellis, director of military vehicle programs at Ricardo.

Exercising the capabilities that DARPA is developing under the Adaptive Vehicle Make portfolio of programs, the FANG Challenge represents a radically novel approach to the development of a new infantry fighting vehicle.

The FANG Challenge will use a crowd-sourcing model to produce revolutionary ideas through three prize-based design competitions, which require participants to design and develop increasingly more complex vehicle subsystems, culminating in the design of a full infantry fighting vehicle. The winning design will be eligible for consideration as the go-forward design for the ACV program.

“The FANG program employs Ricardo’s full breadth and depth of vehicle engineering capabilities,” said Paul Luskin, program director of the DARPA AVM portfolio at Ricardo. “The effort draws upon the company’s traditional strengths in vehicle design and testing, software development, advanced engineering tools and processes, and systems engineering.”

The FANG Challenge is expected to begin in early 2013. Additional information on the FANG Challenge and how individuals can participate in the competitions, along with eligibility, will be announced by DARPA at a later date.

For more information, visit www.ricardo.com.