Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Australian Special Forces is getting Supacat Vehicles

Australian Special Forces
is getting
Supacat HMT Extenda
vehicles

Supacat Extenda 6x6
Copyright: SUPACAT (www.supacat.com)


UK company Supacat's High Mobility Transporter - HMT that was initially designed in late 1990's is now widely accepted as one of the best special purpose military vehicles. The HMT vehicles are now manufactured under license from Lockheed Martin.

HMT has 4x4 and 6x6 variants and a late eddition to the family is the Extenda variant which is convertable from 4x4 to 6x6 and vice versa.

Supacat Extenda 6x6
Copyright: SUPACAT (www.supacat.com)


Extenda has an air spring suspension that offers Ride Height Control, which is a nice capability that allows the vehicle's ground clearance to be increased / decreased to adjust for terrain conditions.

Extenda 6x6 has a total length of 7 meters with 2m width. The vehicle has a combat weight of 10.5 tons in 6x6 configuration and it drops to 7.6tons in 4x4.

The vehicle can be configured with a ballistic and mine protection kit as shown below.


Supacat Extenda 6x6
Copyright: SUPACAT (www.supacat.com)



Extenda specs can be reached at from this Link

Supacat Extenda 6x6
Copyright: SUPACAT (www.supacat.com)

The variant of Extenda that is specifically designed for Australian Special Forces is called Special Operations Vehicles Commando or SOV-Cdo as short.

Australia very recently ordered 89 of these vehicles per their JP 2097 Phase 1B project that concentrates on Special Forces C4ISTAR capabilities and mobility which aims at providing a modern fleet of vehicles.



Thursday, April 10, 2014

HAWKEI 4x4

HAWKEI 4x4
Snake on Wheels


Hawkei (An Australian Snake) is Thales Australia's new 4x4 armored vehicle developed for the Australian Defense Force's New Light Armored Patrol Vehicle programme - Project 121 Phase 4.



Project 121/4 is  1.1B$ programme to replace the Australian Land Rovers.

Hawkei has an integral monocoque Steel V-hull for increased protection against blasts from mines and IEDs. The floor is of floating type with the seats suspended to increase survivability in case of blast.

Hawkei can be crewed with up to 5 soldiers.

The power pack consists of a Steyr 3.2 liter six cylinder turbocharged engine giving 268HP coupled to a 6 speed ZF transmission. 

Suspension is AxleTech 3000 series fully independent progressive coil spring with double wishbone and outboard planetary reduction hubs.

The vehicle is offered with 3 variants so far.

Utility




Border Patrol




Special Forces



The dimensions of the vehicle are below:



Hawkei is a good looking vehicle and as the saying goes "if it looks good...." 

It seems like a good design balancing protection with mobility. 

I can easily visualize Hawkei armed with a medium caliber cannon inside a remote turret blasting in the wilderness.