Cold War thaws
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I/ The thawing of the Cold War has increased pressure on defence spending, so it came as no surprise that last week's British Army Equipment Exhibition included a number of developments bearing marked affinity to civilian commercial vehicle practice.
There are over 20,000 Cummins engines in service with NATO, most recently in 38tonne Iveco Ford artics, and Leyland Dafs four-tonner which has the 5.9-litre BSeries engine.
Leyland Daf is one of a number of manufacturers tendering to build a new generation of road-going military 38-tonners. It is making its bid with the K95 Series, promising improved service support on the Continent.
Demonstrations at the BAEE included AWD's MTM 40-30 8x8 Multidrive and Leyland Dars DROPS vehicle, displayed with an EXA SRTE container transfer unit. This includes extender posts to enable the lift to handle half
height containers or flat racks.
Chertsey-based MWG launched a Perkins Phaserpowered 8x8 all-terrain load carrier which is designed to carry a 2,000kg payload over 450 gradients and through water up to a metre deep.
Land Rover's new 6x6 offers a two-tonne payload. The rear suspension features load-sharing rocker beams and dual rate semi-elliptic springs. Another 6x6 on show was Penman Engineering's new armoured personnel carrier,
the Pinzgauer Ecosse, based on a Steyr chassis.
But not all the exhibits were new. The venerable M151 Jeep is still going strong, with a little help from AF Budge, which fitted the Perkins Prima engine.
Component manufacturers at the show included Rubery Owen-Rockwell. It has developed a walking-beam suspension for the new Trackway Trailer, which is designed to move asymmetric loads over rough terrain.