General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) has been selected by the U.S. Army’s Project Manager Close Combat Systems (PM CCS) to develop and demonstrate the Versatile Networked Obstacle Munitions (VNOM) System, an autonomous counter-mobility capability that emplaces air, side, and bottom attack effectors without putting Soldiers in the contested zone. GDMS, one of three contractors selected for award, announced the selection on September 29, 2026. Neither the contract value nor the identities of the other two awardees have been disclosed.
The award is the first public output of a bilateral U.S.-U.K. Project Agreement to field an autonomous terrain shaping capability, managed from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The Army’s Family of Scatterable Mines (FASCAM), developed between the mid-1980s and late 1990s, is aging out, and PM CCS used a February 26, 2026 industry day attended by more than 70 companies to press for a minimum viable autonomous capability within one year. Program officials noted at the event that the U.K. has provided significant funding for terrain shaping development.
How GDMS Self-Funded VNOM Networked Obstacle Munitions to Prototype
GDMS financed VNOM from concept to demonstrated prototype before the Army made its selection, a posture that signals the company sees a path to production. “VNOM is not a concept paper,” said Todd Hack, vice president of Advanced Electronic Systems at GDMS, who described the system as Soldier-informed and built on years of integration work with Combat Engineer units.
The system’s defining feature is mixed-modal effects. Rather than seeding a field with a single munition type, VNOM autonomously emplaces effectors that attack from the air, from the side, and from below, then coordinates them as one obstacle. Each mode exploits a different vulnerability: top and side attack target the thinner roof and flank armor of main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, while bottom attack strikes the belly and running gear. Layering the three complicates breaching, because a single countermeasure such as a mine plow or roller addresses only part of the threat.
GDMS has not released munition weights, warhead types, sensor modalities, obstacle depth, or network range, and has not identified the platforms that perform emplacement. The industry team offers clues. GDMS leads a group that includes AeroVironment, maker of the Switchblade loitering munition family; General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, the corporation’s munitions and warhead house; General Dynamics Land Systems, builder of the Multi-Utility Tactical Transport (MUTT) unmanned ground vehicle; and Swarmbotics AI, which the Army selected in February 2026 to supply swarming, attritable small unmanned ground vehicles to the 1st Cavalry Division. Corvid, SARA, and Harkind complete the team. Individual work shares have not been disclosed, so any mapping of partners to air, ground, or munition roles remains an assessment.
Terrain Shaping Timeline: Two OTA Phases Toward 2030 Production
The Army is running the competition through Other Transaction Agreements awarded via the Department of Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC), under white paper request RWP-26-13 for requirement WPN-26-003. The solicitation sets two 12-month phases: vendor-led prototyping and demonstration, followed by a down-select and delivery of systems for testing and certification. Sought capabilities include autonomous emplacement and delivery, obstacle planning, networked kinetic and non-kinetic effects, and safe passage for friendly forces. The Army’s 2025 request for information called for a network-enabled system of systems at brigade combat team level, operated by a single controller, tied into existing command and control, and entering production by 2030.
Col. Vince Morris, Project Manager Close Combat Systems, said the three contractors would draw on emerging technology to rapidly deliver an adaptable next-generation obstacle capability, and that integrating it as a system of systems would let U.S. and U.K. commanders shape the battlefield more precisely at lower risk to personnel. According to PM CCS, the prototype effort will assess readiness, effectiveness, and suitability for future development, production, and fielding.
VNOM would sit above the Army’s current terrain shaping increments. The Textron Systems XM204 Top Attack Munition, a hand-emplaced anti-vehicle system, was cleared for release in September 2025 and slated for fielding with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. The XM343 Standoff Activated Volcano Obstacle modernizes the vehicle- and helicopter-dispensed Volcano. Both still depend on Soldiers or crewed platforms to put effectors on the ground.
Analysis: VNOM targets the bottleneck that has made obstacle warfare so costly in Ukraine: engineers laying mines within range of reconnaissance and first-person-view drones become priority targets, and hand emplacement cannot keep pace with maneuver. Shifting emplacement to unmanned systems makes obstacle density a function of autonomy and magazine depth rather than sapper availability. The timing matters for NATO’s eastern flank. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania left the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in December 2025, followed by Finland in January 2026 and Poland in February 2026, and Warsaw and the Baltic capitals are building fortified border belts. The U.K. remains a treaty party, which effectively anchors a shared U.S.-U.K. system in controllable, anti-vehicle effects. GDMS’s decision to self-fund to prototype also shows the Army transferring early development risk to industry, a model that favors primes with internal capital.
Phase 1 prototyping and demonstration is structured to run 12 months, after which PM CCS plans a down-select and delivery of systems for testing and certification. Key unknowns remain: award values, the competing teams, munition specifications, the electronic warfare resilience of the obstacle network, and how the U.K. will procure the eventual system. The 2030 production target leaves little margin for slippage.