Washington, D.C., July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Forterra, the leader in autonomous mission systems, today revealed for the first time that it produced and deployed 105 autonomous Lancer vehicles, in support of Ukrainian forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Completing full delivery in under six months, the company designed and built, and deployed the Lancer, a multi-mission autonomous ground vehicle, to provide logistical and combat support on the battlefield. This effort was developed under a U.S. government program in 2024 and was on contract by March of 2025.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the battlefield has been rapidly reshaped by the widespread use of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, particularly drones, which are now responsible for a significant share of daily casualties. As autonomy becomes central to how wars are fought, the ability to remove soldiers from these high-risk, repeatable missions is no longer optional. Lancer is built for this reality, taking on missions that can be executed autonomously and keeping soldiers out of the most dangerous parts of the battlefield.
Based on the Polaris Ranger 1500 platform and outfitted with Forterra’s AutoDrive autonomy platform and Vektor communications system the Lancer is a poster child for modern defense development, low-cost and attributable, rapidly scalable, and built by integrating proven commercial platforms with advanced autonomy to deliver capability at speed and scale.
The entire project went from a multi-vendor effort to a fielded and operational capability through rapid integration of autonomy, communications, and payload systems. It progressed from intent-to-deploy to its first integrated field exercise in less than 40 days, prioritizing real-world use over isolated testing.
Lancer’s presence in Ukraine has had a tremendous operational impact. So far, the vehicles have traveled more than 2,500 miles across more than 1,100 missions, carrying 777,440 pounds of total weight and completing 52 CASEVAC operations.
“Lancer is the No. 1 choice for critical logistics missions,” said a Ukrainian Commander. “In fact, we urgently need more Lancers to be shipped over immediately.”
“Demos validate a proof of concept, combat deployments validate an operational capability to project force,” said Forterra’s Chief Growth Officer Scott Sanders. “The ability to rapidly produce, deploy and then iterate on an operating concept with both the U.S. government program and our Ukrainian partners validates how this capability enables the warfighter today.”
“We proved these systems work in real operational conditions,” said Forterra’s Vice President of Defense Pat Acox. “What matters now is continuing to deliver in those environments, iterating quickly, staying tightly integrated with operators and sustaining capability at the pace the mission demands.”
To learn more about Forterra’s technology and its mission modules, go to forterra.com.
About Forterra
Forterra is the autonomy backbone for distributed, mission-aware, resilient military operations in contested environments. Building the foundational autonomy platforms that coordinates weapons, sensors, and users through distributed mobility, compute, and communications, anywhere, under fire, without risking human life, Forterra empowers its customers to deploy autonomy as a force multiplier, extending reach, readiness survivability and effectiveness across the battlespace and industrial applications. Forterra is headquartered in Clarksburg, Md., with offices in Arlington, Va., Winter Park, Fl., Ketchum, Id. and Palo Alto, Ca. To learn more, go to forterra.com.
Contact Info
Sanaz Tahernia
press@forterra.com
+1 240-631-0008
