Let’s get radically and speculatively innovative, “Can a powerful high-speed commercial lawnmower serve the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps?” Yes, it can.
I do not have a degree in mechanical engineering, but I do have experience in architecture and design. And when I saw the Honda Mean Mower V2 (MM V2), I suspected that it could serve the U.S. government and armed forces in several roles and missions if modified and converted by the military and university labs and industry. In fact, a lot of the technologies required are already available.
One operation that costs Navy aircraft carrier (CVN) crews a lot of time and personnel several times a day is the carrier foreign object debris (FOD) walkdown. FOD walkdowns are slow, meticulous, time-consuming, and personnel-intensive, and are necessary to prevent the tiniest debris from being ingested into the massive rotating engine compressor blades of jet fighters. Even a simple cheap screw can ruin a jet engine costing millions of dollars.
Sailors perform a foreign object debris (FOD) walkdown after a mass casualty drill on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) on Dec. 4, 2021. U.S. Navy
If you have seen an indoor robot vacuum, then the concept of an unmanned lawnmower to suck up or electrically magnetize FOD is similar. This unmanned vacuum/magnet must be taller and wider than an indoor robot vacuum, and short and squat. Currently CVNs do not have a vacuum/magnet FOD vehicle. A lawnmower chassis, converted into a sucking vacuum and electric magnet, could save a pilot’s life and jet from not catapulting into the sea from FOD engine failure. One converted robotic MM V2 can make a huge and fast FOD cleaning difference.
The MM V2 weighs just 309 pounds (140 kilograms), though it might weigh more with government-furnished equipment to make it rugged and optionally unmanned. MM V2 should be heavy enough to withstand the wave rolls and wind on a carrier’s deck. The Mean Mower has a straight-line dash speed of a whopping 150 miles per hour (mph, 241 kph) and can accelerate to 100 mph in an astonishing 6.29 seconds. However, online videos show the MM V2 doing fast “doughnut turns” on hilly grass and displaying its exceptional maneuverability. The MM V2 is so fast that it is said to have traction control. Add off-road tires and a better throttle/transmission system and the Mean Mower V2 can be an armed, unmanned, fast semi-ATV for the Marine Corps that can go deep into enemy lines using speed and maneuverability to survive.
Driving the Mean Mower V2, pro driver Jessica Hawkins set a new Guinness World Records title as the “Fastest Acceleration 0-100 mph for a Lawnmower” (prototype) in just 6.285 seconds. (Honda)
Seeing the MM V2 from the U.S. Marine Corps’ perspective
A military Polaris MRZR four-seater costs around $36,000-plus and can go 60 mph (96 kph). The MRZR is cheap and work is being done to make it unmanned. The MRZR, with its cargo bed and ability to transport Marines, swing-arm machine guns, and cargo is not the role that the MM V2 concept should mimic. The MM V2 costs $120,000 a piece, and the unit price should decrease with more built. It gets 35 miles per gallon, and most tractor lawnmowers operating at a slow speed can drive for 2.5 to 3 hours. Manned, it appears safer than driving a taller ATV if seatbelt harness and inserted-in rollbar are installed.
Speculatively, the MM V2 can be an unmanned Marine Corps beach information, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) scout vehicle, or vehicle-borne IED dash-drones against fixed structures to replace divested Marine M1A1 tanks’ direct firepower, or even an unmanned “fast-bullet magnet” to draw out enemy fire. Equipped with Boomerang antisniper microphone stalks and slew-to-cue remote weapon stations (RWS), MM V2s can aid Marines in ways no other unmanned drone can because it is faster and more maneuverable than most unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). The element of surprise with the nimble unmanned MM V2 can drive circles around other slower lumbering military UGVs “tethered to Marine escort duty.”
The MM V2 should be the heavy armament carrier that the V-22–carried MRZR is not because the MRZR’s rollcage prevents a heavy gun from being fitted. Remove the MM V2’s seat and an unmanned “lawnmower design” can carry a .50-caliber heavy machine gun or Mark-19 40-mm automatic grenade launcher with CROWS-Javelin Anti-Tank missile coaxial RWS, or man-pack lightweight Hero-30 or -120 loitering munition tubes, or jammers, or telescoping FLIR turret ball, or aerial drone platform, or a cross litter, or VBIED explosives, or a Fletcher APKWS four-shot rocket pod, or a SATCOM radio dish, or a RADA radar dish, and still fit inside a V-22 with no modifications.
The MM V2 is 9.1 feet long (2,770 mm) and 4.4 feet wide (1,366 mm)—two will fit inside a single V-22’s cabin that is 24.4 feet long, 5.91 feet wide, and 6 feet high.
The MM V2 can even be converted underneath to scan and suck up oil-spill tar globules from the beach for the U.S. Coast Guard in an optionally manned configuration.
