Whilst we are discussing vehicles I thought a few vehicles from the past that might be of interest, either served or nearly served. Some of these seem quite similar to some of those found in previous posts and comments, like the Fennek for example.
Pearson Engineering Route Opening and Clearance Capability (PEROCC)
Humber Hornet with Malkara Missile (big HESH warhead)
Alvis Streaker, best name for a vehicle ever! (AFV Society)
Alvis Stalwart (AFV Society)
Alvis Simba with TOW
Alvis Simba
Alvis Scarab
Alvis GKN Tactica
LIMAWS(G)
LIMAWS(R)
Tempest MPV (Note similarities to FP Cougar and Mastiff)
Alvis Acorn (AFV Society)
CVRT with 90mm Cockerill (CMI)
Vickers Valkyr
Escaro 8x8
QinetiQ Hybrid Electric Drive Demonstrator
Multidrive Future Cargo Vehicle (FCV)
Roush LAS 100 RE
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15 Comments
If anyone can find any decent images of the Alvis Aquatrack, Storm 90, Warrior LMT105, Stormer 30, Alvis Low Profile Experimental Vehicle or any others anyone can think of I will post them up
Crikey, they might be old, but some of them look as if they might be some use against IEDs in ‘Stan today.
I’ve never seen the Alvis Acorn or Scarab before. They look like a UK versions of the Fennek.
I remember reading about the Pearson Engineering PEROCC two or three years ago. Apparently the British Army was very interested at the time. The idea was that it would undergo trials for a couple of years (including some time spent in BATUS) and, if everything proved satisfactory, would enter service round about now. I remember thinking at the time that it could be a very useful vehicle for clearance of surface mines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then I have heard nothing about the project. Maybe it has been quietly dropped in favour of the Talisman system.
It works, I think, on a combination of blade and roller. The Americans say mine rollers have saved many lives in Afghanistan but the British appear not to fit them to thier vehicles!
Nice to see a picure of the Alvis Scarab which should have won the FCLV competition over the Iveco Panther.
Mike, we do fit rollers to Mastiff and as you say, we have ordered 14 Buffalo for the Talisman Programme
http://www.forceprotection.net/news/news.html?id=269
some pictures of aquatrck here, 2 built sold to phillipine marines
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product2854.html
by the way the site that the aquatrack pictures comes from has a picture of stormer in the bridgelayer!!! never seen that before.
Admin, thanks very much for the info on mine rollers. I did not know they were fitted to British Mastiffs.
The other vehicle from “Blasts from the Past” that interested me was the Stalwart. I was reminded of a meeting I had with some soldiers in a service station on Salisbury Plain not many years ago. I think they were gunners from Larkhill. I asked them whether there were any Stalwarts still in service. They replied no but that they wished there were. One of them told me that they had suggested a re-furbishment of the Stalwart, including the fitting of more powerful diesel engine. Unfortunately no action had been taken.
I don’t know how successful a “Stalwart2″ would have been in modern combat conditions. It was certainly a mighty beast of a vehicle, originally developed for the oil industry in the Middle East, I understand. Its fuel consumption was rather high (a steady 70 litres for every 100 road kilometres!)
Admin, the Alvis Low Profile Experimental Vehicle appears in the Alvis PLC section of the link that Paul G provided. It’s called the Storm 90, is the vehicle you were looking for?
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4403.html
I was after some decent quality images, the ones on that site are a bit small. Thanks anyway
The main point of the post was to try and show that we have been able to produce some diverse and capable vehicles and when one looks at SPV400, Ranger and Ocelot etc then it looks like as a nation, we still have the capability. All we need is the political will to exploit that talent
Yet more British defence projects added to the graveyard by politics shame as if we had been on the ball we could have sold many of these vehicles abroad or simply saved lives. The three I really like are the PEROCC, the Alvis Scarab and the Tempest MPV all of which look like they are ideal for current operations.
Euan, Tempest has seen service. Have a look here
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2009/08/mine-and-ied-resistant-vehicles/
Re: Tempest and some of the other vehicles mentioned, here’s an interesting article from Defence of the Realm which helps explain a lot of it.
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2006/06/wheels-on-truck-go-round-and-round.html
that article is like a prequal to the expenses, make me rich, stuff the peasants, the peasants in this case being the troops on the ground, i hope karma exists and those 2 get what’s coming to them
You should add Zephyr-CreationLTD to the list of Spv/Ocelot etc check youtube
A bit late but the latest copy of Military Machines International magazine ( cover dated Jan 2011) has a good article on the Acorn with lots of photos.