BAAINBw: MoSeS Tender on TED for up to 28 Quadrupedal Reconnaissance Robots — First Bundeswehr QUGV Programme
Koblenz, 5 May 2026
Key points
- BAAINBw on 5 May published the MoSeS (Mobiles Sensor-System) tender on TED for a framework agreement covering up to 28 quadrupedal reconnaissance robots — the Bundeswehr's first formal QUGV procurement programme
- Requirements: mobility on steep slopes and high vegetation, ability to traverse stairs, semi-autonomous waypoint following, near-real-time video transmission, transportable in current and future Bundeswehr armoured personnel carriers
- Programme follows WTD 41 trials that found no commercially available wheeled or tracked UGV met mobility-and-obstacle requirements; participation deadline 10 June 2026, bid submission requests by 1 July
BAAINBw on 5 May published the MoSeS (Mobiles Sensor-System) tender on the EU's TED portal for a framework agreement covering up to 28 quadrupedal reconnaissance robots — the Bundeswehr's first formal Quadrupedal Unmanned Ground Vehicle programme — with participation requests due 10 June 2026 and bid submission invitations expected by 1 July.
The MoSeS system specification covers a mobile sensor carrier and an operator-and-evaluation unit (Bedien- und Auswerteeinheit), with requirements including mobility on steep slopes and high vegetation, the ability to traverse stairs, semi-autonomous waypoint following with continuous near-real-time video transmission, and transportability in current and future Bundeswehr armoured personnel carriers. The system is designed for combat reconnaissance in both mounted and dismounted operations and must perform in adverse weather such as high wind and limited visibility.
MoSeS was originally scheduled for 2023 but was delayed after WTD 41 (the Bundeswehr's Land Vehicle Technology Centre at Trier) rented and tested several commercially available unmanned ground systems and concluded that no wheeled or tracked UGV fully met the mobility-and-obstacle requirements. The requirement to circumnavigate rather than only traverse obstacles is the technical specification that pushes the candidate field to a legged-robot architecture.
The tender sits inside Army Chief Christian Freuding's broader UGV-and-drone integration plan, published in November 2025, which routes unmanned ground systems into reconnaissance, logistics and EW roles at the brigade and battalion level. MoSeS is the procedural opening of that architecture at QUGV class — extending the force-structure framework first cleared in Signal No. 44.
Sources: Bundesamt für Ausrüstung Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr, Wehrtechnische Dienststelle für landgebundene Fahrzeugsysteme (WTD 41), Tenders Electronic Daily, Bundesheer Kommando Heer.
First reported in Signal No. 53, 5 May 2026.