Armtrac

Armtrac 75 has been developed by Armtrac Ltd. The system has been designed to clear both anti-personnel (AP) as well as smaller sized Unexploded Ordnance (UXO). The system consists of a commercial telehandler (JCB 520) unit fitted with protective armour, with a flail unit attached to the arm. The flail unit is easily detachable, and a variety of other equipment including a milling device can be used in its place. Armtrac 75 appears to have the utility for the clearance of tracts of land with wide ranging terrain types where the ground is not required to retain its formation after clearance. It also appears to have the ability to clear banks and ditches using the telescopic arm.

This UK based trial is phase 1 of a three-phase trial to fully test the Armtrac 75. The UK trial will concentrate on the mobility and aspects of performance. Subject to the preliminary results of the UK trial the Armtrac 75 will be shipped to Sweden for further performance testing and also survivability testing. Finally the Armtrac 75 will be subjected to reliability and user acceptance testing in a mine affected country (currently Cambodia).

The UK trials will start on the 23rd February 2004.

The objectives of the UK trial are:
- To assess the mobility of the Armtrac 75 using the vehicle testing facilities.
- To make a "rule of thumb" assessment of the performance of the equipment under prescribed conditions and to estimate clearance rates of both mined and vegetated areas.
- To make an estimate of the running costs and logistical support required for the equipment during operations, from available information.

As mentioned above further performance testing and survivability testing will be carried out in Sweden in mid-April for approximately 10 days.

The proposed Acceptance Trials with MAG will be held in Cambodia starting in June/July time.