Vanguard Magazine

Feb/Mar 2015

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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M MSVS www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 27 Works would not confirm which compa- nies responded when the RFP was reis- sued in July 2013, but four companies did confirm to Vanguard their participation in the program. Mercedes-Benz opted not to disclose any details about its bid, but Oshkosh Defense, Navistar and Rhein- metall agreed to share some details about the vehicles they have submitted. Oshkosh: Proven operational endurance Oshkosh Defense is offering a purpose- built military vehicle based on its Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) platform used by the U.S. De- partment of Defense and more than 20 foreign countries, including Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Since its initial operational capability, declared in 1982, more than 35,000 combat-proven HEMTT vehicles have been manufac- tured across multiple vehicle generations. More recently, the company has directly applied their in-theatre experience with the HEMTT to design the latest in the series, the HEMTT A4. The LHS variant has also been selected by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency as the vehicle platform for its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program. The HEMTT's 13-ton payload and off-road capabilities make it the backbone for the U.S. Army's logistics fleet. Since its introduction, the HEMTT has helped keep the army on the move through Desert Storm and Iraqi Free- dom as well as Opera- tion Enduring Free- dom in Afghanistan. According to U.S. DoD budget data, in fiscal year 2013, the unit cost of the HEMTT LHS Cargo was US$307,429. As for the in-service support component of the project, John Bryant, senior vice president of defense programs at Oshkosh, said that "logistics services are increasingly important in the defense market" consid- ering current budget constraints on new acquisition programs. He stressed the quality of the company's strategic part- nership with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency "which ensures that DoD cus- tomers have a readily available inventory of parts to support their programs at the appropriate readiness targets." Oshkosh Defense provides on-site field service support and technical expertise, something the Canadian program could capitalize on. Navistar: Strength through unprecedented mobility Navistar representatives in Ottawa said they have been working long and hard on the MSVS project and are confident that their offer, the ATX8 developed in alliance with the Czech Republic's Tatra, is both financially and technically the best vehicle. Based on Tatra's T815-7 truck, the ATX8 has been "Canadianized" to in- clude, inter alia, Navistar's cabin, engine, transmission, and breaks, among other features. Navistar was awarded the MilCOTS portion of the MSVS contract in January 2009 and hopes to benefit from the suc- cess of that program. Though the SMP is required for a fundamentally different mission, both trucks share a significant de- gree of commonality of components. For the sake of coherence and consistency, it could be argued both trucks should come from the same manufacturer. Daniel Webster, director of military pro- grams at Navistar Defence Canada, insists the ATX8 "will be built here," though he was unable to confirm whether "here" meant Canada or, more broadly, North America. Although Navistar owns and operates a plant in Chatham, Ontario, all 1,300 Mil- COTS vehicles were manufactured at its facility in Garland, Texas. The company said the MSVS trucks did not suit an as- sembly line for big-rig tractors. But at the time, it was a difficult blow for the region given that Canada had invested over $30 million to maintain auto manufacturing jobs in Ontario, and that 500 of the 700 Canadian workers at the Chatham plant were given lay-off notices shortly after the DND contract award. While the ATX8 design may not set it apart, one of the vehicle's strengths lies in Tatra's Tactical Chassis Technology, which provides independent suspension featuring swinging half-axles. Each wheel moves up and down independently, allow- ing remarkable cross-country mobility. The chassis was first developed on pas- senger vehicles by Tatra in 1923 and has been constantly improved ever since. Vid- eo footage of the T815-7 during earlier performance tests shows what Tatra has Photo: Navistar

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