RCV-Pioneer
Pearson Engineering vehicle-mounted mine plough and lane-marking system carried by the DOK-ING MV-8 Komodo uncrewed mine-breaching vehicle.
Pearson Engineering's mine-clearing plough was fitted to the DOK-ING MV-8 Komodo uncrewed breaching vehicle and shown publicly for the first time at Eurosatory in Paris on 15 June 2026.
Last refreshed: 24 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can uncrewed mine-ploughs like the RCV-Pioneer remove the human cost of NATO's most dangerous land task?
Timeline for RCV-Pioneer
A ground robot takes over the minefield
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
The RCV-Pioneer is a modular minefield-breaching payload developed by Newcastle-based Pearson Engineering, built to be mounted on uncrewed ground vehicles so that a cleared lane through a minefield can be created without exposing a crew to direct threat. It combines a full-width mine plough, which mechanically displaces mines from the soil, and a lane-marking system that marks the cleared corridor for following forces.
The RCV-Pioneer reached international prominence at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris, where it was integrated onto the DOK-ING MV-8 Komodo, a heavy uncrewed breaching vehicle jointly developed by Croatian firm DOK-ING and Germany's Rheinmetall Landsysteme. The combined system was developed and tested in under six months, the first uncrewed mine-breaching platform built on a latest-generation UGV chassis.
The payload reflects a wider shift in mine-clearance doctrine away from crewed armoured vehicles and towards remotely operated systems that can work ahead of friendly forces, a shift driven largely by the scale of Russian minelaying in Ukraine.
The plough joined Komodo within months
Pearson Engineering's mine plough and lane-marking payload was mounted on the DOK-ING MV-8 Komodo uncrewed breaching vehicle and shown publicly for the first time at Eurosatory in Paris on 15 June 2026.
The integration took under six months from first talks to show floor, a pace its developers say proves modular payload design can outrun bespoke armoured-vehicle programmes. For RCV-Pioneer, the Komodo pairing is its first demonstrated platform integration, giving Pearson Engineering a working system to offer NATO buyers rather than a drawing-board concept.
What is the RCV-Pioneer mine breaching system?
How does the Pearson Engineering RCV-Pioneer work on the MV-8 Komodo?
