Those responsible for the acquisition programmes of new logistic vehicles find themselves more and more at difficulty in the choice of trucks, that must satisfy today's and tomorrow's (the service life of military trucks is nowadays projected at 25 years or more) multiple and often diverging operational and technological requirements, while at the same time keeping costs under tight control. The shift in military doctrines towards peace support/peace enforcement operations, which can be of a long duration and may require deployment in faraway theatres characterised by difficult environmental conditions with insufficient or non- existent infrastructures, results in the logistic support assets being subjected to much heavier use than originally planned. To quote but a particularly striking example, the British Army's Leyland MMLC/DROPS 8x6 trucks were designed in view of a projected average mileage of 8000km/year, 50% of which on paved roads and 50% off-road (30% on unpaved roads and tracks and 20% cross- country). Yet, Operation "Telic" has resulted in these vehicles covering up to 16,000km in three weeks, almost completely on desert tracks and with ambient temperatures of up to +50°C. Furthermore, the current demand for enhanced cross-country performance rules out the use of non-all-wheel-drive commercial trucks, with militarisation restricted to little more than a coat of green paint. These vehicles are admittedly low-cost, but in practice they are only suitable for peacetime service on the national road network.

» Free PDF eBooks Download
» Mlitary Vehicles