The UK Ministry of Defence has approved the development of new lightweight recovery vehicles (LWRV) in a Supacat and NP Aerospace conversion project announced this week.
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British Army Jackal and Coyote high-mobility transporter vehicles will be converted to the new LWRV to fulfil off-road requirements identified during Operation Newcombe in Mali.
UK armed forces ran stabilisation operations with UN peacekeeping forces in Mali in January 2013 and later December 2020.
Four Supacat LWRVs will be released to the army this year as part of the Protected Mobility Engineering and Technical Support.
A Supacat ‘Extenda’ removable third axle will be added to provide the recovery module and a ‘Supalift’ recovery system will allow the recovery of the Foxhound and HMT platforms.
NP Aerospace chief operating officer David Petheram said the modular design allows the new recovery vehicles to be returned with the respective removal or addition of the recovery module.
“As engineering authority for the MOD UK Protected Mobility fleet, we are pleased to be working with vehicle OEMs and partners to deliver enhanced vehicle platforms that deliver significant operational benefits for the British Army,” he said.
“The project has received great feedback and we look forward to delivering the capability over the coming weeks.”
Supacat head and director Phil Applegarth also celebrated the technology.
“We are proud to be able to deliver a solution that not only fills an urgently needed capability gap, but HMT’s modular design demonstrates its flexibility such as integration of Supalift’s game-changing technology in extending the lifting capability of light vehicle recovery systems for the Army,” he said.