 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||||||||||
|
US army rebuilds bridges |
|||||||||||
|
Tim Ripley reports on the US Army’s plans to replace its ageing inventory of bridging equipment |
|||||||||||
| The US Army’s recent operational experiences in the 1991 Gulf War and in Bosnia from 1995 onwards have focused its attention on its battlefield mobility assets. Its assault, support and logistic bridging assets proved to be old, slow, unreliable and manpower intensive.
The brief engagement with Iraqi forces as US armoured formations swept into the middle eastern country was a major test of the US Army’s combat engineer forces. Its 1960s vintage bridge-laying M60 tanks that were needed to cross Iraqi anti-tank ditches and oil pipelines proved unable to keep up with the M1 Abrams tank-equipped units. While on NATO peacekeeping duty in the Balkans, the US Army’s larger support and logistic bridges proved to be out of date and difficult to deploy in the horrendous conditions of a Bosnian winter. The problems encountered trying to bridge the Sava River to allow US Army tank columns to move into Bosnia at the start of the NATO mission, was a salutary lesson in the costs of neglecting battlefield mobility assets. The US Army’s tank automotive and armaments command (TACOM) is at the forefront of the services’ efforts to renew its bridging capability.
Wolverine bridge The most advanced programme is the Wolverine heavy assault bridge. This integrated an upgraded M1A2 Abrams tank chassis with the 26-metre long Leguan aluminium bridge system, developed by MAN Technologies of Germany. General Dynamics Land Systems, the prime contractor for the system, delivered the first vehicle in the autumn of 1999. The last of 465 vehicles is due to be delivered by the end of 2001. The bridge can be deployed in under five minutes and retrieved in under ten. It is operated by a two-person crew – a driver and a commander – who have dual controls to operate the bridge. The bridge is transported in two sections above the tank chassis. When it is positioned at the bridging location the launch sequence starts with the deployment of a spade to anchor the vehicle firmly to the ground. The two sections of the bridge are then joined into a single span. A launching mechanism then propels the bridge across the gap and drops it into position. To retrieve the bridge the procedure is reversed. The Wolverine also is equipped with full digital communications to provide military commanders with visibility of all the Wolverines on their own command screens, allowing them to tell the Wolverines the exact position where the bridge is to be laid. Bridge-procurement contest By March 2000 the TACOM at Aberdeen proving ground is expected to select the winner of the HSSB contest to replace its old manpower-intensive M2 Bailey bridges that, literally, have to be bolted together by hand from kits at bridging sites. These date from World War II and are proving to be very slow to deploy by modern standards. This is perhaps the most high-profile bridge- procurement contest at the present time. Sweden’s Kockums Karlskronavarvet, a Celsius subsidiary, is offering versions of its fast bridge (FB) family of products. They are offering the US Army a 40-metre bridge that uses a launching rail or beam, supported by a mechanical building system, to allow a seven-strong crew to build the structure in a maximum of 90 minutes. Britain’s William Fairey Engineering is offering a rival solution based on a development of its Axial Folding Bridge supplied to the US Navy in the 1980s. The company is offering a rail-launched, 42-metre bridge that can be built by eight men in 40 minutes. A mechanised building system lifts palletised bridge sections from a truck and then launches them across the rail. Both companies have also been down-selected as possible bidders for the Austrian Army’s bridging requirements.
Ribbon bridge The ribbon bridge/raft is an interconnecting system of floating bridge sections, consisting of a ramp and pontoons. A current ribbon bridge set consists of ten pontoons and two ramps to span a 76.4-metre gap. Each pontoon is carried, launched and retrieved from a modified truck. The elements of the US system are inter-operable with allied ribbon bridge systems. Bridge sections are transported folded and are launched from the transporter truck at the shoreline and positioned in the water by bridging boats that are locked together. Boats may be required to hold the bridge in a stable position in swift currents. Bridge sections are recovered, refolded and reloaded onto the ribbon bridge transporter vehicle by reversing the launching procedure. The current system dates from the 1960s and a wide-ranging programming is under way to replace the main elements. The new M1977 common bridge transporter (CBT) is one of the latest variants of the US Army’s heavy, expanded-mobility tactical truck (HEMTT) 8 x 8-wheeled vehicle system. This is used to transport bridge components and is equipped with the Oshkosh/Multi-lift 10-ton capacity, load-handling system. The improved ribbon programme got underway in January 2000 with the delivery of proposals to TACOM from the two contending teams, prior to a programme of testing. The requirement is to increase the load carrying capability of the bridge and its ability to keep station in fast flowing rivers. Germany’s MAN Technologies and the US-based Systems Electronics Inc are teamed to offer a version of the FSB 2000 bridge version while United Defence is offering a home grown American product. ©
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
"In the Gulf and in Bosnia, the US Army’s logistic bridging assets were old, slow and unreliable" |
|||||||||||
