Springer was a short-lived British Army all-terrain load carrier introduced under an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) to support operations in Afghanistan. Based on the Tomcar all-terrain vehicle and supplied by Enhanced Protection Systems (EPS) UK Ltd, the rear-wheel drive, two-seat diesel vehicle was designed to carry up to one tonne of combat supplies from helicopter landing sites into forward operating bases and to move casualties in the opposite direction.
Seventy-eight were ordered from December 2008, the fleet reached full operating capability in August 2009 and 29 vehicles were deployed to Afghanistan between July 2009 and July 2010. Steering problems surfaced in training, and Springer was removed from service in Afghanistan in March 2011 and declared out of service by September 2011, its role passing to quad bikes and trailers.
Table of Contents
Springer History
Requirement and Competition
In Afghanistan, Supacat All Terrain Mobility Platform (ATMP) vehicles were used to support counter-IED work, Apache attack helicopter refuelling points and in their traditional logistics role, but they were withdrawn from theatre because of reliability problems and declared out of service in November 2010. A specialist utility vehicle team investigation found that the ATMP could not be fitted with an environmental mitigation package without what amounted to a complete redesign.
The MoD then considered further options for the Land Forces Load-carrying Platform capability, and judged that a quad bike and trailer did not have the payload to fulfil the role.
Several manufacturers were asked to ‘express an interest’, including:
Roush (Balter 2)
Development Engineering and Enterprise Limited (WVL-C6-AS)
Enhanced Protection Systems UK Limited (Tomcar TM5)
John Deere, Yamaha Corporation, Honda Motor Company Limited and JC Bamford Excavators Limited declined to bid.
Contract and Introduction
The first and only Springer order was placed in December 2008, for 78 vehicles; all 78 were issued, 75 of them delivered to Land Forces, and the last was delivered in summer 2009. The contract award to Enhanced Protection Systems was announced in April 2009. The contract number was SUV C1/0204, for a requisition quantity of 78 platforms, with EPS (UK) Ltd of Moira, Derbyshire, as main contractor and design authority.
The contract was worth about £7 million (about $10.3 million) to fit, deliver and support 75 vehicles, although one account puts the total cost at £3 million.
Initial operating capability was set for 31 May 2009 and full operating capability for 31 August 2009, with a planned life of one year under UOR A01393. The Army Equipment Support Publications (AESPs) were issued as first editions dated February 2009.
A Tomcar magazine article stated;
The company’s Business Development Director, John Stoddart, who had just returned from a specialist training area in the Southwest where he had been involved in a driver instructor programme. As a former soldier with 35 years under his belt, first as an infantryman and then commissioned REME, who served out the closing years of his armed forces career in Defence Procurement, there can be few better qualified than Stoddart to carry out this urgent operational requirement through from drawing board to frontline deployment
In what was an interesting turn of phrase, Dr Andrew Tyler (Chief Operating Officer for the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support) stated;
The Springer dune buggy will be an added capability for the troops
The article went on to state;
EPS, which is primarily known for its supply of ballistic protection to the UK MoD but is also a key supplier in the UAV scene had doubled its workforce to cope and subcontracted out some of the work. In its current configuration Springer is fitted with a 1400cc Lombardini diesel engine although larger options are available.
Taking a quote from the MoD’s website
Lack of armour is a benefit. Armour would be paid for with impaired versatility. In any case, Springer’s main purpose is to carry casualties and cargo between relatively safe helipads and base facilities.
Driver training was established at the Defence School of Transport, Leconfield, and in Germany.
Service in Afghanistan
The delivery of Springer vehicles into Afghanistan started in July 2009 and ended with the last batch, of two vehicles, received in Afghanistan in July 2010. In all, 29 were deployed (an earlier MoD figure gave 27). Transportation of the vehicles to and from Afghanistan was by land and sea, and the balance of the fleet was used for training and development.
In September 2009, The Sun reported problems with the Springer fleet that had emerged during initial driver training.
And to add to Mr Brown’s woes, fears have been raised over a £7million fleet of off-road Army vehicles set to be flown to Afghanistan next month. A military source said that despite being passed fit for use, there had been “real problems” with steering during testing of the Springer vehicle. The concern over the 40mph Springer buggies came during tests at the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield, Yorks. Seventy of the two-seater buggies have been bought to help transport casualties between helipads and bases.
One tester of the Springer said the vehicle needed bigger rear tyres and more power. And a senior military source told The Sun the teething problems were worrying.
He said: “We have a real problem with the Springer. This is meant to be a tough go-anywhere vehicle capable of high speed over rugged ground. To have steering columns damaged by a few bad bumps in Yorkshire is of some considerable concern.”
The MoD denied any problems, with a spokesman telling the newspaper;
There have been no reports of problems with the vehicle. Springer has successfully passed its trials with the Army, has been declared fit for purpose and is going into service
The deployment continued.
A Springer 2 revision followed, retrofitted to existing vehicles as a result of operational experience, but the changes would not solve the fundamental problems. The Sun’s tester had asked for bigger rear tyres, and the most visible difference of the Springer 2 was larger diameter wheels, which also raised ground clearance.
Withdrawal and Disposal
Springer was removed from service in Afghanistan in March 2011, recovered to the UK and declared out of service by September 2011 (some accounts give 2012). Springers were still in use on exercise with 7 Air Assault Battalion REME and 23 Engineer Regiment (Air Assault) in 2011.
For the rest of operations in Afghanistan, quad bikes and trailers were used, despite the MoD having judged them unsuitable, the very reason the Springer acquisition was initiated. Springer was a rare failure among the vehicle UORs of the period.
The vehicles were later sold to civilian users, reportedly for about £7,000 to £10,000 each, and some ex-military examples have since been advertised for £15,000. As of November 2014, however, the MoD had never sold any Springers and so held no price or value information, which suggests the disposal sales came later.
Springer Capabilities
Design
The AESPs describe Springer as ‘a self propelled, seated operator, 4 wheeled machine for operation on unimproved natural terrain and disturbed terrain’, a rear-wheel drive vehicle based on the ‘Tom Car TM57D BMV (British Military Variant)’. The Tomcar was designed in Israel, where it first served with the Israel Defense Forces as a patrol vehicle, and was built in the United States. The AESPs attribute its cross-country mobility to ‘good power to weight ratio and the vehicles unique geometry giving a very low Centre of Gravity (C of G) whilst maintaining high ground clearance’.
The British version seated two crew under a Roll Over Protection Structure (ROPS), each with a four-point safety harness. Cargo platforms were mounted front and rear, and an electric winch, rated at 8,000 lb, could pull loads onto the rear cargo bay or recover the vehicle. Sand ladders doubled as loading ramps, allowing Springer to self-load a one-tonne pallet. Tools, a spare wheel, a high lift jack and the ramps were stowed on the vehicle, which had towing points front and rear. Electrical equipment included a 12 V system with a 24 V inverter power socket and an infrared light bar.
The MoD’s role statement was to clear a drop zone of stores and munitions rapidly, ‘effectively reducing the effort and load bearing requirement for the individual infantryman’, and to extract casualties to a safe area or extraction point. Springer was road legal and fully air transportable in the C-17, C-130, CH-47 Chinook and EH101 Merlin, and the Joint Air Transport Evaluation Unit (JATEU) completed a full evaluation before the in-service date.
The British version is sometimes described as incorporating basic armour, although the MoD’s own statement, quoted above, presented the lack of armour as a benefit; a later Springer Mk II offered for sale had armoured doors and back plates. Weapon mounts for the SA80 A2 rifle, Minimi light machine gun and 7.62 mm GPMG could be fitted, and EPS also offered a light strike version called Terrier, armed with a .50 calibre M2HB heavy machine gun and GPMG.
Engine and Transmission
Springer used a four-cylinder, naturally aspirated, four-stroke 1,400 cc Lombardini diesel rated at 35.2 hp, with turbocharged and petrol options offered. Drive was through a proprietary gearbox with high, low and reverse ranges and a continuously variable transmission driven by a Kevlar-reinforced belt, with oil-bathed chains in the final drive and a differential lock. Brakes were servo-assisted hydraulic discs at all four wheels. Suspension was double wishbone at the front and trailing arm at the rear, with adjustable dual coil-over springs.
Specifications
The table uses MoD AESP figures where published; weights and payload were redacted from the released AESPs, and the figures marked are from other sources.
| Item | Springer |
|---|---|
| Crew | Two |
| Drive | 4×2, rear-wheel drive |
| Length | 3,416 mm |
| Width | 1,780 mm |
| Height | 1,686 mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,562 mm (Army Technology) |
| Ground clearance | 378 mm |
| Dry weight | 850 kg (Army Technology) |
| Payload | One tonne (MoD role statement); cargo box rated at 1.4 t (Army Technology) |
| Towed load | 2.6 t (Army Technology); 2.7 t quoted for a Mk II |
| Engine | Lombardini four-cylinder 1,400 cc naturally aspirated diesel, 35.2 hp |
| Transmission | Belt-driven CVT with high, low and reverse; chain final drive |
| Fuel | 2 × 27 litres |
| Range | 300 miles |
| Maximum speed, road | 40 mph unladen; 30 mph laden |
| Maximum speed, off road | 30 mph unladen; 20 mph laden |
| Fording | 400 mm |
| Tyres | Front 25×8.00-12; rear 25×12.00-12 or 26×12.00-12 |
| Winch | Electric, 8,000 lb (Army Technology) |
| Air transport | C-17, C-130, CH-47, EH101 |
Document Information
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 4 November 2026 | Reviewed and expanded; restructured into History and Capabilities; Hansard, MoD Freedom of Information and AESP material added on orders, dates, design, air transport and specifications; specification table added; contract value and disposal accounts attributed; dead link replaced with an archived copy; images captioned; internal links and sources added |
| 4 November 2026 | Table headings shortened; source attributions rewritten as narrative |
Sources and Further Reading
Primary sources are the MoD Army Equipment Support Publications for Springer, including AESP 2320-B-130-101 Purpose and Planning Information and the Equipment Support Policy Directive (first editions, February 2009), released under FOI2017/07808, and the written answer on vehicle UORs of 11 March 2010. Other sources include Defense Update, 13 April 2009, Army Technology, Paradata, WarWheels and Jane’s.
Related Think Defence articles include Helicopter Carried Vehicles, Part 3 (UTVs and Load Carriers), Replacing the Quad Bike ATV, COTS High Mobility Load Carriers and Light Role Infantry Platoon Load Carriage.
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