Forterra

Learning Objectives

• Understand how Forterra applies AI autonomy to military ground vehicles through its AutoDrive kit
• Evaluate what a large, combat-deployed fleet of autonomous ground vehicles does and does not prove today
• Assess the teleoperation-versus-autonomy and lethal-autonomy questions around uncrewed ground vehicles

What Is Forterra?

Forterra is a defense-autonomy company that builds AutoDrive, a vehicle- and payload-agnostic self-driving kit for military ground vehicles. Rather than manufacturing a single robot, Forterra sells an integrated hardware-and-software package — sensors, onboard compute, and AI perception and planning — that can be retrofitted onto existing platforms, from small robotic transports up to five-axle missile-launching trucks.

The company was founded in 2002 as Robotic Research and rebranded as Forterra in February 2024. It was founded by Alberto Lacaze — now its chairman and president — and is led by chief executive Josh Araujo, who was named CEO in early 2026; it is headquartered in Clarksburg, Maryland. Its Lancer autonomous ground vehicle — built on a Polaris all-terrain chassis fitted with the AutoDrive kit — is the platform Forterra has deployed to Ukraine.

The Ukraine Deployment

Forterra describes its Ukraine fielding as the largest combat deployment of autonomous ground vehicles by any US defense-technology company. According to the company's figures reported by TechCrunch, more than 100 Lancer vehicles arrived beginning in October 2025 and, over roughly nine months, drove more than 2,500 miles across over 1,100 missions, hauled more than 777,000 pounds of cargo, and completed 52 casualty evacuations.

The honest caveat matters as much as the headline. Ukrainian crews today mostly teleoperate the vehicles rather than run them fully autonomously — one soldier told TechCrunch the systems cannot yet reliably spot and react to unexpected enemy forces. The value of the deployment is less "AI now drives itself into combat" and more that sustained, messy, real-world missions generate exactly the operational data needed to push toward dependable battlefield autonomy — data most competitors have only gathered in exercises.

Key Capabilities

• AutoDrive — a vehicle- and payload-agnostic autonomy kit (sensors, compute, and AI perception and planning) that retrofits onto existing platforms
• Lancer — the Polaris-based autonomous ground vehicle used for the Ukraine deployment
• Platform range — installed on everything from small robotic transports to five-axle missile-launching trucks
• Mission set — contested logistics, resupply, and casualty evacuation, with a human operator in the loop
• US Army programs — the Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System (GEARS) and a $114 million award for autonomous breaching systems
• Combat data — a large fielded fleet generating real-world operational data most rivals have only from exercises

Company Details

Key Takeaways

• Forterra builds AutoDrive, a vehicle- and payload-agnostic autonomy kit that retrofits AI self-driving onto existing military ground vehicles rather than selling a single robot
• Its Lancer autonomous ground vehicle is deployed in Ukraine in what the company calls the largest US combat deployment of autonomous ground vehicles — over 100 vehicles, 2,500-plus miles, and 52 casualty evacuations
• Most of that driving is teleoperated today, not fully autonomous, so the deployment's real value is the operational data it generates toward dependable battlefield autonomy
• Founded in 2002 as Robotic Research and now valued over $1 billion after a November 2025 Series C, Forterra holds US Army autonomy contracts including GEARS and a $114 million autonomous-breaching award