19 Mar 07. GSV IPT becomes the third IPT to join DVD. DVD 2007 dates at Millbrook: June 27th and 28th. General Support Vehicles Integrated Project Team (GSV IPT) has become the latest IPT to choose DVD as its annual stakeholder event, confirming it as Europe’s leading forum for those involved in the design, supply and use of service vehicles and field support systems. GSV IPT will join DVD founder and organiser the SUV IPT (Specialist and Utility Vehicle Integrated Project Team) and ESS IPT (Engineering Systems Support Integrated Project Team), helping to ensure that DVD2007 will be even more comprehensive than last year’s record-breaking event. Held at Millbrook’s exceptional all-terrain test and demonstration facility near Bedford, DVD is designed to bring manufacturers, purchasers, specifiers and senior users closer together. It provides a unique opportunity for the groups to discuss, learn and experience the mobility systems that are increasingly critical to the success of the UK’s defence and emergency services. “DVD brings together a wide range of specialists involved in delivering mobility to the field,” explains SUV IPT team leader Nigel Gilhead. “Last year’s integration of ESS IPT proved to be a great success and we are looking to build upon this by extending the reach of DVD to include heavier vehicles from GSV. These additions will help our community to work even more closely together and continue to enhance the support we provide to field operations.” GSV IPT is a through life IPT responsible for the procurement and in-service management of heavy logistic vehicles with a payload of 4 tonnes and above. Its 20,000 insert number vehicles are used by all three armed services and include wheeled tanker (WT), heavy equipment transporter (HET), future light equipment transporter (FLET), demountable rack off-loading & pick up system (DROPS) and others. It is currently in the process of procuring some 7,000 new and extremely capable MAN Support Vehicles, which will replace much of the legacy fleet. As well as trying to reduce the whole life costs of its vehicles, GSV IPT is also responsible for enhancing the capabilities of units deployed on operations. This includes, improved the ballistic protection to crews and providing a cooler working environment whilst maintaining the ability to provide defensive covering fire. At DVD, GSV IPT aims to explain the scale of the impact that in-service enhancements can have on a vehicle. “When we receive an urgent operational requirement to alter a vehicle’s specification there are a wide range of factors we must consider,” explains GSV IPT’s Lt Col Rowland Judge. “For example, adding extra protection or a new capability can mean increased weight, the need for uprated components and a requirement for additional power. DVD will enable us to discuss implications like this with our stakeholders so that we can look at new ways of working together to provide the right equipment to the front line in even shorter timescales.”