DEFENCE VEHICLES
Written by defence consultant Andrew Simpson
Advertising Feature
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR DEFENCE – www.defencebusiness.net
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: IVECO DEFENCE VEHICLES AT DSEI 2013
DSEI 2013 is set to take place against a very challenging back‑drop for the defence industry. On the one hand, the boom in equipment sales resulting from operations in Afghanistan has ended, and the emphasis has now switched to engineering a relatively graceful exit, with, in the UK’s case, much UOR equipment being returned to the core equipment programme On the other hand, opportunities still exist, even in a relatively slow market, if suppliers are willing both to understand the evolving needs of the customer, and to invest in likely solutions to those needs. This is not a strategy without risks but, hitherto, Iveco Defence Vehicles has proved very adept at anticipating the direction of customer requirements and developing new vehicle families or new variants to meet them. This is very much the focus of the company’s stand at DSEI this year, taking the opportunity to demonstrate what can be achieved by exploiting existing vehicle families, or their drive trains, to develop new cost-effective solutions. SUPERAV The first example of this is the 8 x 8 amphibious SUPERAV which is being displayed in the UK for the first time. Prior to starting
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development, Iveco’s market analysis had identified the growing need for a genuinely amphibious, well protected and highly mobile vehicle to support littoral operations. Although other vehicles on the market had made some attempt at meeting this target, the competition tended to fall victim to one of the several design compromises inherent in the design of amphibious vehicles. Either they were overly costly, or their swimming capability was compromised, meaning that amphibiosity could only be achieved with a minimum payload or without adequate armour, Iveco’s challenge was to avoid these and other pitfalls,
producing a truly amphibious vehicle with class leading protection and payload at an affordable price. The fact that Iveco’s engineers achieved this goal is remarkable, and the fact that the programme went from drawing board to prototype in 18 months is ground-breaking. The rapid development was made possible by basing the design on the well proven Centauro engine and driveline and focusing development effort on the hull. Further key design decisions followed: in order to reduce weight, armour was brought in board, protecting the crew cell rather than the complete hull surface,
Iveco would ll ea welcom rested te those ins on Stand u to visit 30 at DSEI N8-1 3 in 201 ber Septem