Forterra, a developer of autonomous mission systems, has revealed for the first time that it produced and deployed 105 autonomous Lancer vehicles in support of Ukrainian forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War. The company completed the full delivery in less than six months, designing, building and deploying the Lancer, a multi-mission autonomous ground vehicle intended to provide logistical and combat support on the battlefield. The effort was developed under a U.S. government programme in 2024 and was under contract by March 2025.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 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 increasingly central to modern warfare, removing soldiers from high-risk and repeatable missions has become an important requirement. Lancer is designed for this environment, performing missions autonomously while keeping soldiers away from some of the most dangerous areas of the battlefield.
Based on the Polaris Ranger 1500 platform and equipped with Forterra’s AutoDrive autonomy platform and Vektor communications system, Lancer combines a commercial platform with advanced autonomy capabilities. The vehicle has been developed as a rapidly scalable and low-cost system designed to deliver operational capability at speed and scale.
The project progressed from a multi-vendor effort to a fielded and operational capability through the rapid integration of autonomy, communications and payload systems. It moved from intent-to-deploy to its first integrated field exercise in less than 40 days, with an emphasis on real-world deployment rather than isolated testing.
Lancer’s deployment in Ukraine has resulted in significant operational use. To date, the vehicles have travelled 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.”
