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17 Oct 11. The U.S. Marine Corps is interested in “harvesting” technologies form the Army’s Humvee Recap program, but because of the capabilities they have already identified as essential to their mission, they won’t buy any fully Recapped Humvees. Instead, according to comments made by the Corps’ Dan Pierson, deputy program executive officer for land systems, the service is banking on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) while upgrading—not fully recapping—several thousand Humvees. “When you look at the requirements that the Marine Corps had for the Humvee Recap, it was much more robust than what the Army is trying to get out of Recap, because we were trying to install a lot more mobility,” with more payload capacity, Pierson said earlier this week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual convention in Washington. “According to Marine Corps studies, these requirements pushed the Recap price tag “up in the $240,000-250,000 [per truck] range,” which is the same price as a JLTV. Since the JLTV would be brand new, and “has so much more payload, so much more capability” than the Humvee, “the business case analysis for the Marine Corps for the Recap was just not there,” Pierson says. Pierson added that since the Marines still need to sustain its Humvee fleet, “we’re still going to work very closely with the Army on Humvee Recap and be partners throughout.” In other words, they will take what they can from the Army program, without fully buying in to the effort. (Source: Aviation Week)

07 Oct 11. Upgraded Caterpillars delivered to British Army. The British Army has received more than 75 upgraded engineering Caterpillar Construction Plant vehicles from UK-based Finning Defence Group, the majority of which are in service in Afghanistan and the remainder held in the UK as a training fleet. Finning has brought together an upgrade package for the Caterpillar 434E Light Wheeled Tractor and the Caterpillar 938 Wheeled Loader, which brings enhancements to the vehicles by providing a high level of crew protection. (Source: Jane’s, IDR)

———————————————————————–Millbrook, based in Bedfordshire, UK, makes a significant contribution to the quality and performance of military vehicles worldwide. Its specialist expertise is focussed in two distinct areas: test programmes to help armed services and their suppliers ensure that their vehicles and systems work as the specification requires; and design and build work to upgrade new or existing vehicles, evaluate vehicle capability and investigate in-service failures. Complementing these is driver and service training and a hospitality business that allows customers to use selected areas of Millbrook’s remarkable facilities for demonstrations and exhibitions.
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