MGVs to get counter-IED kits

[unhappycamper]

MGVs to get counter-IED kits
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 5:44:08 EDT

The 27-ton armored Manned-Ground Vehicles for the Army’s Future Combat Systems will soon have a newly constructed V-shaped hull, part of a counter-IED kit designed to lift the vehicles off the ground in areas that are at high risk for roadside bombs, service managers said.

“Because these are not torsion-barred, we can remove these hydros off and move the vehicle up,” said Scott Davis, deputy program manager for FCS. “It gives them up to 36 inches of ground clearance and it has a V-hull. It is a kit that you won’t run on the Manned-Ground Vehicles all the time, but if you are going to an area that has the potential for IEDs, this gives protection equal to or better than an MRAP.”

Now in the concept phase, mock-ups of the MGV mine-resistant vehicle show a long, composite armor bed attached to the vehicle’s tracks, allowing the chassis to simply rest upon it and be 3 feet higher off the ground.

“This is a conceptual design,” said U.S. Army Maj. Keeton Chester, program manager for vehicle electronics. “We will make modifications to it, then build it. We are looking at a contract award within the next year. It is not really a complicated concept.”

The countermine kit for the MGVs is made possible by the vehicle’s hydro-pneumatic suspension, which does not use torsion bars common to other armored vehicles such as the Abrams and Bradley. The lack of torsion bars across the base of the chassis allows the chassis to be lifted up and placed back down upon an elevated countermine structure.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/defense_MGV_061608/