TWV Protection Kits

Abstract

This program element supports periodic, evolutionary upgrade of survivability and crew protection for Heavy Tactical Vehicles (HTV) and Medium Tactical Vehicles (MTV) as described in the Tactical Wheeled Vehicle (TWV) Strategy and individual variants' Capability Production Documents. The upgrades will leverage the Army Technology Objective's (ATO) survivability and Army Research Laboratory's (ARL) research and development activities to develop and evaluate armor kits which increase the protection level of all HTVs to the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) protection level as well as anticipating changing threat environments, protection gaps, or improving the operating performance, efficiency, and reliability through armor weight reduction. This Program Element (PE) also supports increasing crew protection by leveraging advancements in autonomous ground vehicle technology via development and evaluation of autonomous applique kits that can be applied to the current and future HTV fleet. The Heavy Dump Truck (HDT) supports construction projects by loading, transporting and dumping payloads of sand and gravel aggregates, crushed rock, hot asphalt mixes, earth, clay, rubble, large boulders and other materials up to gross vehicle weight rating to job sites under world-wide climatic conditions. The HDT also serves as a quarry truck for the quick transport of bulk raw earth material to and from the crushing, screening and washing plant and the asphalt mixing plant. The HDT also serves as a transportation asset for organizational equipment. The HDT is Long Term Armor Strategy (LTAS) compliant with MRAP 1.1 underbody protection. The armor solution is developed concurrently with the production of armor capable HDTs. Upon development of the armor solution, the Government procures the armored HDT's. The Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS) is comprised of a M1070A1 Tractor and M1000 Trailer for transport, recovery and evacuation of heavy, oversized combat equipment such as the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank and M88 or similar loads. The current HETS has two capability gaps; Payload and Road Network Accessibility. The HETS is not capable of transporting or loading/unloading the heaviest combat platform in the ABCT since it exceeds the HETS rated payload of 70 tons (U.S.). Road Network Accessibility of the current HETS is restricted due to exceeding axle load limits CONUS/OCONUS, which prevents the HETS from obtaining road permits. Short term is an interim solution to modify current HETS tractors and build new HETS trailers. The current interim solution is in response to a United States Army Europe (USAREUR) Operational Needs Statement (ONS# 17-22207) for Heavy Equipment Transporter Systems with deliveries beginning the first quarter of FY2020. The USAREUR HETS ONS solution shall be capable of carrying 78.5 Tons of payload while achieving host country road permits at a reduced weight of 75 tons. The recommended course of action for satisfying the ONS is to utilize a modified version of the M1070A1 tractor combined with a commercial 8-axle trailer. Per the 1 DEC 17 Army Requirements Oversight Committee (AROC), this trailer will be capable of carrying 85 tons. The AROC also directed an additional modification to the tractor that will allow it to achieve an ultimate carrying capacity of 85 tons. The overall design was enhanced considerably on the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) Underbody Armor Kit and requires live fire testing to support Full Material Release. The Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) requirement document issued for a Medium Tactical Truck (MTT) with model configuration upgrades needed to support required transport capabilities, armor capabilities, and load dimensions. This Acquisition Strategy reduces operation and support costs, displaces vehicles which cannot be armored, and results in a more reliable fleet. FY 2019 Project VR5 Base funds in the amount of $2.378 million will be used to build two (2) Heavy Dump Truck (HDT) Armor Capable Truck Asset Prototypes and Armor Solution testing. Armor Solution testing costs include system testing, evaluation, and document production for the HDT program. The Government conducts Production Verification Testing (PVT), which includes First Production Vehicle Inspection (FPVI) and Logistics Development on an armor capable HDT, and Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) testing. Upon development of the armor solution, the Government procures armored HDT's. FY 2019 Project VR5 Base funds in the amount of $1.500 million will be used for OGPK/CROWS Weapon Station updates to existing logistic products, as well as hardware development in support of crew served weapons on unarmored and armored trucks. There have been several survivability enhancements that have occurred since the HEMTT and PLS truck production program began. These enhancements did not incorporate measures to correct for automotive performance degradation that has occurred due to the additional mass of the survivability enhancements. Currently the HEMTTA4 and PLSA1 with top, side, underbody, fuel tank and RPG protection; as well as the addition of a weapon station, have overloaded the truck axles. To regain the original design performance and safety factors, new suspension components are required. FY 2019 Project VR5 Base funds in the amount of $0.800 million will be used for Live Fire Testing of the improvements to the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) A1P2 Underbody Armor Kit that are required to support Full Material Release.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2019
• Source ID: VR5_0604622A_5_2040_PB_2019

Tags

Fields of Study

• Engineering

Readers

• Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
• Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.