Autonomy Multiplies Combat Power With Fewer Troops
Scott Sanders, Chief Growth Officer at Forterra, on autonomy for every vehicle
The core bet is that autonomy matters most when it changes force structure, not just vehicle staffing. Forterra is describing a battlefield where a battalion can move supplies, sensors, and weapons with many more unmanned ground and air systems, so the same unit covers more ground and sustains more combat power without adding the long human logistics tail that normally follows every deployed soldier.
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Forterra’s product is an onboard autonomy stack for vehicles, built to keep working at the edge with weak networks, local compute, sensor fusion, and degraded communications. That matters because a robotic convoy or firing unit only adds real combat power if it still functions when links break and infrastructure is gone.
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The practical gain comes from tooth to tail. Sanders frames the problem as too many people tied up moving fuel, food, gear, and systems to the fight. If robots drive trucks, place sensors, or carry payloads, fewer troops are consumed by support work and more can stay focused on combat tasks.
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This is the same product logic Forterra applies in commercial yards. In ports and distribution centers, autonomous terminal tractors move trailers around messy, GPS poor environments with limited network quality. The common thread is replacing repetitive vehicle movement in hard settings where labor is costly and reliability matters more than flashy autonomy demos.
The next phase is a shift from single autonomous vehicles to mixed fleets that let one unit command many ground, air, and maritime robots at once. If Forterra keeps turning autonomy into a standard kit on existing vehicles instead of a bespoke robot program, defense buyers get a faster path to scaling robotic mass across NATO and Pacific deployments.