Whilst Loglogic were not exhibiting at this year’s DVD, PR consultant Mike Gormley was scouting for a possible presence next year.
Loglogic, as the name suggests, have their roots in the forestry industry and have been designing and building specialised vehicles and equipment for over 15 years. The forest industry demands tough reliable equipment and this is what Loglogic produce. The customer/end user base has expanded considerably and now includes powerline companies, nature conservation organisations, and the RNLI with special high clearance, water resistant beach rescue boat launching vehicles. Other applications include fire-fighting, mounted and power driven equipment, cranes and hydraulic manned access platforms.
The company produce specialised mobile saw mills and a number of these are in service with UK MoD and have been used in various theatres. Not something that gains a great deal of publicity but they are currently in use in Iraq and have been to Bosnia, Belize and other locations throughout the world.
The vehicles are based on two tracked units. The Softrak has a 2 tonne payload, 4100 kg GVW and the Bigtrak a 5 tonne payload at 10980kg GVW. Both have very low ground pressure, especially the Softrak (1.25psi), as it’s name suggests. The vehicles are able to operate in extreme conditions where soft and steep ground make it difficult to carry useful loads. The vehicles are at home on sand and shingle beaches so making them particularly useful in littoral areas of operation.
Operating on rubber tracks, working on hard surfaces is quite acceptable. Both vehicles produce high tractive effort, 4,000 and nearly 10,000 kgs respectively.
Both can be fitted with cranes and winches of very useful capacity. One can imagine these being of considerable benefit during beach landing operations.
Both the present vehicles have diesel engines which power hydrostatic transmissions and are controlled by a unique single lever making them very easy to operate and highly manoeuvrable. Various body styles are produced including tippers and canopies.
The vehicles lend themselves to remote controlled operation and this is currently being investigated. With the ever increasing interest in ROVs ( remotely operated vehicles ) it is expected that this will draw interest from military users. The Softrack has been used for EOD tasks and one is in full time service recovering ordnance from a coastal range and another on an inland range.
At present both vehicles are quite slow or at least deemed to be so, at 14 kph. With this in mind and with the increasing need for highly mobile load carriers, perhaps remotely controlled or with this ability, the company is looking at some very interesting developments.
This type of vehicle offers a very stable and mobile platform and could be used to mount surveillance equipment, remote weapons stations or be a launch platform for smaller UAVs. Perhaps the entire operation being man free if required.
Loglogic are little known in the military environment but this may be due to change.