Defence Business: Ocelot builds on UK momentum | ADM Feb 2011
Gregor Ferguson | Brisbane
Force Protection’s Ocelot contender for Project land 121 Ph 4 owes much to the British Army’s Light Protected Patrol Vehicle (LPPV) program, for which it was awarded a 200-vehicle order shortly before LWC.
Force Protection is based in Florida and its Australian CEO Mike Moody told ADM the company is not a vehicle company: it is a survivability solutions company.
There’s a subtle but fundamental difference.
For the LPPV program Force Protection focused on the protection, and its UK partner, Ricardo PLC, concentrated on the automotive aspects.
However, Force Protection owns all the IP and will continue to evolve it to meet Australian and other requirements.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2011 and be completed in 2012.
The Ocelot will be the first ever British designed and built protected patrol vehicle to include a fully composite pod to protect the occupants.
This innovative module derived from structural design technology developed for the motor sport industry through Force Protection’s relationship with Ricardo.
Ocelot will also be the first British military vehicle to accommodate the UK MoD’s new Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA) requirements.
The GVA is designed to create a single, standard digital electronic and electrical architecture for UK vehicles that will enable crew to manage power and handle data efficiently on the vehicle, and for the vehicle to be easily adapted when the need arises.
The British Army set a very high bar for protection, Moody told ADM, and the Ocelot (dubbed Foxhound by the British Army) meets a sophisticated but quite general operational requirement.
The first two trials vehicles for Australia were already under construction during LWC and were due at Monegeeta, for ADF trials this month.
The Ocelot uses a 160kW Steyr turbo diesel; the DMO wants more power, however, says Moody, so this will be increased.
And it features a 6-speed ZF automatic transmission and four-wheel steering which cuts out above 29 mph (46 km/h).
The automotive components are sized to handle greater payloads and gross vehicle mass of up to 10 tonnes, he added.
The Ocelot configuration emphasises the protection levels: the C2 variant has a single side door and a large rear door for personnel and cargo.
An armoured ‘surfboard’ running the full length of the underside protects the drive train.