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UTM is often used by Army forces, formally or ad hoc, based on a range of operational factors.

• Contemporary operations and operating environments present "bundles" of factors that can favor or discourage UTM employment.

UTM has tactical drawbacks.

• The tactical threat is the most difficult factor to offset, and it has routinely outweighed the potential benefits of UTM in the judgment of operational commanders.

UTM capabilities provide a demonstrated alternative to increase operational flexibility through reduction of requirements for delivering an operationally significant force.

• Other militaries, services, and individual Army units currently have appropriate and tactically beneficial methods for employing UTM.

Lacking validation, UTM requirements receive little official attention.

• While UTM demands do exist for conventional Army units, the lack of tactical unit participation in formal requirements validation processes has left UTM requirements undervalidated, underrepresented, and not fully understood.
• While individual Army units maintain ad hoc UTM capabilities, coordinated Army UTM capabilities are generally nonexistent.
• The Army can develop the basic UTM capability needed with some limited foundational investments.

More systematic Army testing and evaluation is needed to fully assess the operational impact of UTM.

• Insufficient metrics, data collection, and evaluations exist to fully assess UTM employment and operational effectiveness or to assess the impact on conducted operations from not having UTM capabilities.

The increasing size of standard service vehicles creates a gap in tactical mobility.

• The growth in size and weight of the Army's SSV has resulted in unmet tactical mobility requirements that UTM can address under some circumstances.

The Army owns and operates a large fleet of wheeled combat and support vehicles, divided into three categories: heavy, medium, and light tactical vehicles. It also often uses ground mobility capabilities that are not formally identified in any of the categories, such as all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, as well as some continuing use of pack animals. These vehicles are informally classified as ultra-light tactical mobility (UTM).

Most recently, forces in Afghanistan have used several types of UTM, to include ATVs and pack animals. In April 2014 Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) initiated a plan to develop established sets of UTM vehicles for airborne forces. Given the persistent use of UTM currently and throughout the Army's history, a more detailed examination is warranted to determine whether the Army should formally acquire and equip units with such vehicles. This report assesses the unvalidated needs (demands), validated needs (requirements), current ad hoc capabilities, and key considerations for developing and sustaining formal Army UTM fleets.

The various potential UTM investments and applications do not provide equal opportunity to improve current and future Army operations. Furthermore, the threats and risks associated with some UTM applications make their use in combat less likely and investments in them harder to justify. This report identifies and assesses various potential methods for Army development of UTM capabilities. The Army should consider likely impact, risks and threats, and emerging technologies when prioritizing the employment methods, or Tactical Activities, described in this report to address with UTM program investments.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Defining the UTM Demand

• Chapter Three

  Army and Joint UTM Demand Profiles

• Chapter Four

  A Tailored Process for Assessing UTM Alternatives to Meet Unit Operational Requirements

• Chapter Five

  Strategies for Developing and Sustaining Army UTM Capabilities

• Appendix A

  The Historical and Contemporary Use of All-Terrain Vehicles, Bicycles, Motorcycles, and Quadrupeds

• Appendix B

  Detailed Platform Transportability Analysis

• Appendix C

  Detailed Summary of Army Doctrinal Discussion of UTM Capabilities

• Appendix D

  Supporting Information for Execution of the UTM Selection Process (UDAP)