The U.S. Army tested an autonomous breaching vehicle with an onboard counter-UAS (C-UAS) turret during a live-fire exercise at Fort Bragg on August 18. As part of Project Sandhills 2.0, self-driving Ford F-250 trucks were put through their paces, some armed with computer-controlled drone-killing shotgun turrets.
Sandhills 2.0 builds on the original Sandhills project which spawned the Lancer UGV, built on the Polaris Ranger 1500 utility vehicle, which ended up being gifted to Ukraine. However, this new breaching solution adds C-UAS abilities to bolster their abilities to clear the way for human soldiers to advance. Breaching operations can be seriously compromised by a determined enemy using increasingly common FPV drone technology and this fact inspired the changes delivered in Sandhills 2.0.
The Army described the vehicle as carrying modular systems to support automated obstacle reduction while limiting soldiers’ exposure to direct enemy fire. Obstacle reduction is engineer-speak for clearing lanes through minefields, wire, and other barriers so troops and vehicles can move forward. It is dangerous, deliberate work, and it is exactly the kind of task the Army wants a machine doing instead of a soldier.
The vehicle chosen for Sandhills 2.0 was a self‑driving Ford F‑250 truck, equipped with Forterra’s AutoDrive system. Ford’s readily available spares should make the F-250-based system easier to maintain and repair, reckons Forterra’s VP of defense. That is another important factor the designers weighed, for this latest iteration of a viable U.S. Army autonomous breaching vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Edda counter-unmanned aircraft system turret (built by Austin-based 9 Mothers) takes care of fast-moving drone threats of 7-inch diameter or larger, at ranges between 10 to 100m (33 to 328 feet). The source report notes that the turret weighs around 23kg (50 pounds).
Interestingly, the turret first detects incoming drones acoustically before an onboard visual tracking system locks on. This methodology prevents the F-250-based system from being easily detectable by advanced enemy drone sensors, suggests the source report. Finally the shotgun-armed Edda engages the enemy drone.
According to 9 Mothers published data the Edda turret is an “ultra-fast, ultra-light, ultra-accurate motion platform — 5° in under 15 ms at 1.5 arcminute precision.” We would welcome some test data, though – like what percent of drones get destroyed in one shot, the maximum speed of drones that Edda can engage, or how many drones it can handle per minute.
An Edda counter-unmanned aircraft system turret mounted on a Ford F-250 semi-autonomous vehicle stands ready for testing during Project Sandhills 2.0 at Range 63, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on August 18, 2026. The system uses acoustic and visual tracking and a human-authorized effector to defend breaching assets against small unmanned aircraft systems.
Sandhills 2.0 grew out of an earlier Army effort known simply as the Sandhills Project, run by the 20th Engineer Brigade under the XVIII Airborne Corps. That first phase produced the Lancer, an unmanned ground vehicle built on a Polaris Ranger chassis, which the United States later sent to Ukraine. Sandhills 2.0 is meant to move that work from prototype demonstrations to systems the Army can actually field.
Forterra secured the prime contract for Sandhills 2.0’s autonomous breaching and terrain-shaping work on July 31, 2026, after taking part in earlier Army integration exercises. Under that contract, the company is delivering autonomous mission systems built on Ford F-250 trucks, intended to handle zone-clearing and line-charge deployment without a soldier in the vehicle.
The Army’s interest in pairing autonomous breaching vehicles with counter-drone defenses traces directly to Ukraine. First-person-view drones have proliferated on that battlefield, and the United States donated its own breaching vehicles there in 2025. Army officials have said publicly that FPV drones could jeopardize a breaching operation in a future conflict if the vehicles doing that work have no way to defend themselves while they work.
The August 18 test folded the Edda turret onto the autonomous F-250 platform to see whether a single vehicle can clear obstacles and defend itself against drones at the same time, rather than requiring a separate escort or a second vehicle carrying only counter-drone equipment.
Sources: Tom’s Hardware; Defence Blog; dvids