FOREFRONT is at your side

John Cockerill and Renault Group unveiled the Forefront Concept, an innovative approach in the field of unmanned ground vehicles for the most demanding missions.

Forefront Concept is a remotely operated ground platform featuring four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and two electric motors. It is designed to deliver high mobility, outstanding manoeuvrability and leading off-road capabilities across all types of terrain. Remotely operated and silent, the concept targets a range of approximately 400 kilometres, extendable through a range extender, enabling remote operations in the most demanding environments. With a target payload of up to one tonne, it is designed to address a wide variety of military uses but also civilian applications, particularly civil protection operations, logistics and interventions in constrained or hazardous working environments.

Two complementary areas of industrial expertise: Forefront Concept draws on the complementary expertise of Renault Group and John Cockerill. Renault Group designed the mobile platform and contributed its expertise in developing modular architectures, with a focus on reusing proven automotive components. Combined with design-to-cost and design-to-manufacturing principles, this approach optimises development costs and lead times from the earliest design stages as well as large-scale production capacity supported by a robust supply chain. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in electrification, Renault Group also brings recognised expertise in powertrains and batteries to ensure a high level of performance in the most demanding environments. Together, these capabilities make it possible to offer a high-performance platform that can be rapidly industrialised and is economically competitive.

John Cockerill designed the concept’s remote-operation and autonomy functions for complex environments and contributed its expertise in vehicle militarisation, mission-system integration and operational support. Its experience in armoured vehicles and defence systems enhances the robustness, survivability and adaptability of Forefront Concept to field constraints. As part of this project, John Cockerill has developed modular, scalable remote operation and autonomy solutions to ultimately enable the platform to operate fully autonomously while ensuring system safety and security.

Developed with input from the French armed forces, Forefront Concept will take part in several exercises and trials in the coming weeks to further refine the concept based on their operational feedback while also contributing to their thinking on the rapidly evolving nature of operational environments and emerging needs for robotic capabilities.