As deadly improvised explosive devices continue to rip into coalition forces in Afghanistan, one US armoured vehicle manufacturer is suggesting that the Pentagon is not testing its vehicles’ ability to withstand blasts according to the most stringent possible method, Inside the Army has learned.
Force Protection has benefited enormously from the Pentagon’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle spending spree since 2007 when, in response to climbing IED-related casualty numbers, Defense Secretary Roberts Gates declared the vehicles’ acquisition to be the Pentagon’s highest priority.
Because of the speed with which the US purchased the vehicles, the Pentagon pursued several different designs from different vendors.
Force Protection was recently awarded a lucrative contract by the British Ministry of Defence to manufacture the Ocelot Light Protected Patrol Vehicle.
During that vehicle’s development, Force Protection’s engineers say they made a sobering discovery.
“As we were testing we ran into some situations where we realised that the standards that the British MoD was using were much more severe than MRAP testing standards in America,” according to a Force Protection source close to the process.
“In fact, we came up with a blast impulse factor of about three to one over the more traditional MRAP test levels.”
A version of Force Protection’s Ocelot has also been down selected for the Manufactured and Supported in Australia (MSA) option by the Australian Department of Defence as one of three Australian-based solutions to provide up to 1,300 next-generation protected mobility vehicles under the $1 billion Land 121 Phase 4.
More recently Force Protection has indicated its preference for vehicle manufacture in Adelaide if selected for the Australian requirement.
As deadly improvised explosive devices continue to rip into coalition forces in Afghanistan, one US armoured vehicle manufacturer is suggesting that the Pentagon is not testing its vehicles’ ability to withstand blasts according to the most stringent possible method, Inside the Army has learned.
Force Protection has benefited enormously from the Pentagon’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle spending spree since 2007 when, in response to climbing IED-related casualty numbers, Defense Secretary Roberts Gates declared the vehicles’ acquisition to be the Pentagon’s highest priority.
Because of the speed with which the US purchased the vehicles, the Pentagon pursued several different designs from different vendors.
Force Protection was recently awarded a lucrative contract by the British Ministry of Defence to manufacture the Ocelot Light Protected Patrol Vehicle.
During that vehicle’s development, Force Protection’s engineers say they made a sobering discovery.
“As we were testing we ran into some situations where we realised that the standards that the British MoD was using were much more severe than MRAP testing standards in America,” according to a Force Protection source close to the process.
“In fact, we came up with a blast impulse factor of about three to one over the more traditional MRAP test levels.”
A version of Force Protection’s Ocelot has also been down selected for the Manufactured and Supported in Australia (MSA) option by the Australian Department of Defence as one of three Australian-based solutions to provide up to 1,300 next-generation protected mobility vehicles under the $1 billion Land 121 Phase 4.
More recently Force Protection has indicated its preference for vehicle manufacture in Adelaide if selected for the Australian requirement.
