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Web Page sponsored by MILLBROOK
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.
Tel: +44 (0) 1525 408408
www.millbrook.co.uk/military
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Nov 09. Millbrook wins VCA work again. Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire says it won the In-Service test contract from the UK’s Vehicle Certification Agency for a fifth straight year. This aims to ensure that vans and light trucks meet European Community in-service emissions targets. Millbrook will work with the VCA to test vehicles in use on Britain’s roads to compare their emissions to the relevant type approval standard. For the first 100,000km of their life, Euro 4 vehicles must stay within those emissions limits.
24 Nov 09. DARPA authorises MRAP integration for Crosshairs vehicle-protection system. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has given the Mustang Technology Group the go-ahead to start integration of the Crosshairs (Counter Rocket-propelled grenade and Shooter System with Highly Accurate Immediate Responses) programme onto mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. Under a USD8.1 million contract awarded by DARPA to Mustang on 18 November, 25 Crosshairs systems will be fitted onto a variety of MRAP vehicles alongside the Iron Curtain active protection system for testing and evaluation. (Source: Jane’s)
01 Dec 09. Oshkosh Corporation marked the handoff of the 1,000th MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) to the U.S. Armed Forces on Nov. 30 at a ceremony with military leadership at the company’s facilities in Oshkosh, Wis.
Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command, and Lt. Col. Coll Haddon, M-ATV product manager for the MRAP Joint Program Office, were the keynote speakers at the event. Having exceeded the government’s delivery schedule for five consecutive months, Oshkosh is ramping up production to 1,000 vehicles per month in December and continuing at that level through April 2010. “We understood the urgency of the M-ATV program to save American lives and leaned forward in advance of receiving the contract to build vehicles and prepare our operations for this high-quantity production,” said Robert G. Bohn, Oshkosh Corporation chairman and chief executive officer. “Our workforce has embraced this important mission and made countless personal sacrifices to produce these vehicles quickly to protect those that are sacrificing for our safety. They will continue to deliver these life-saving vehicles along with replacement parts and field support, as long as necessary.”
Since being awarded the production contract on June 30, 2009, Oshkosh has received four additional awards from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) to supply a total of 6,219 M-ATVs. Oshkosh also has received orders for spare kits and to send its factory-trained field service representatives to Afghanistan to provide training and maintenance support for the vehicles. The aggregate amount of the five awards is valued at $3.2bn. The M-ATV is the U.S. military’s newest MRAP model, combining the protection levels of legacy MRAPs with improved mobility and durability to handle Afghanistan’s mountainous cross-country terrain and unimproved roads. The vehi