Defence Projects: MineWolf prepares for Land 144 RFT | ADM Dec 06/Jan 07
By Gregor Ferguson
A Swiss firm has put its hand up for an important ADF capability: military and humanitarian land mine clearance.
Swiss company MineWolf Systems AG has teamed with Melbourne's Rosebank Engineering Pty Ltd to bid for a key part of Army's land counter-mine program, Project Land 144.
To meet Army's need for a Protected Hazard Reduction Capability the partners are offering a mine clearance vehicle designed specifically to clear anti-tank and anti-personnel (AT and AP) mines efficiently and quickly.
The other elements of Land 144 are an Improved Handheld Detector and a Personnel Explosive Lane Clearance Charge (PELCC).
The MineWolf family of COTS mine clearance vehicles has already seen extensive service with humanitarian organization in Sudan, Jordan, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.
It has also been trailed and validated by the defence forces of Germany and Switzerland.
CEO Tobias Schmidt told ADM in October the company expects to announce a number of significant European and NATO orders in the near future.
The MineWolf system consists of a specially-designed tracked vehicle which pushes a mine-clearing tool.
This can be either the traditional chain 'flail' which beats the earth ahead of the vehicle, or a unique, patented 'tiller' head designed to physically excavated the earth and detonate both AT and AP mines.
The tiller resembles a massive rotary cultivator: it is a rotating 2.8m shaft long and 1.1m thick onto which are mounted some 400 blades (or 'chisels') spaced to ensure that every mine along that 2.8m-wide swathe (slightly wider than the average main battle tank) is destroyed or detonated.
The tiller rotates at 300-600rpm, driven by the vehicle's 270kW Deutz diesel engine, and its chisels penetrate all soil types including heavy clay and sand, to a depth of 350mm.
Importantly, in clearing a safe strip across a mined area, it doesn't leave undetonated mines in the spoil alongside its path.
The MineWolf moves at a speed of 0.8-1.5km/h when the tiller or flail are operating.
It is 7.42m long in tiller configuration, 7.82m with the flail fitted instead, and the tractor unit itself is some 5.9m long.
The tractor weighs 21.8 tonnes with the cabin fitted and the tiller and flail add a further 4.5 of 4.8 tonnes, respectively.
It was designed for military operations so is configured Air Transportation and can be used tactically by the ADF.
It can easily clear 1,500m2/hour according to MineWolf's Tobias Schmidt, or up to 2,800m2/hour under benign conditions.
A more realistic target is 30,000m a day, he told ADM.
The system comes with a containerised field workshop which enables quick repairs to mine- or obstacle-damaged chisels, whole tillers, flails and protective armour.
It also enables rapid conversion from tiller to flail and vice versa, depending on the threat.
The flail system penetrates to around 200mm and is best for heavy AT mines containing more than 7.5kg of high explosive.
The tiller is optimised for AT mines below this weight of explosive and, of course, AP mines.
Alternative attachments include a dozer blade and other clearance tools: the MineWolf is actually manufactured in Germany by AHWI Maschinenbau GmbH, a company better known for its forestry products which are widely used by forestry companies in Australia.
One of MineWolf's secondary capabilities is general land clearance to help open up roads in more secure areas.
The MineWolf is manually operated, and so heavily protected at the front from exploding mines.
Compliant with STANAG 4569 Class 3A and 4B, it can also be up-armoured against common battlefield threats, according to Tobias Schmidt, right up to the level of an armoured fighting vehicle, if necessary.
However, in very high threat environments it can also be operated remotely, with its profile reduced by removal of the armoured cab.
In either case it employs GPS guidance both to plan and execute the task and, crucially, to provide an accurate record of the areas it has cleared.
Tobias Schmidt told ADM no other mine-clearing system has been able to deliver comparable results in recent years: in two separate deployments between 2003 and 2006 it has cleared 3,128,000 million square metres of mine-infested land.
In Croatia it has cleared 3,225,000 million square metres; in Sudan 550,000 square metres; in Jordan it has cleared 40,000 square metres of mine-strewn territory along the Israeli border.
It has operated in temperatures from -10 to +48 degrees Celsius, and always under the hand of local operators with MineWolf simply providing advice on achieving maximum productivity.
The German Army and procurement organization, BWB, tested MineWolf for effectiveness back in 2001, effectively certifying it for live operations which began soon after.
Since then both BWB and Swiss defence manufacturer RUAG have tested and certified the survivability of the design also, in terms of both human operator and the mechanical elements exposed to mine blast.
Following a live trial of competing mine clearance systems in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year, the UAE Army has eliminated the other candidates and reportedly is set to acquire MineWolf on a sole-source basis.
Tenders for Project Land 144 close soon. MineWolf and Rosebank Engineering have kept their bid under wraps until now.
According to Tobias Schmidt the company can deliver the first article within months of receiving an order; Rosebank will be responsible for in-service support.
The MineWolf family include a Mini-MineWolf which is remote-controlled for lightness and so it fits into a standard cargo container.
This uses the same flail and tiller as the standard version but is designed for rapid deployment into remote areas with little infrastructure and optimised for slightly lighter mine clearance tasks.
And the company has developed what it calls the MineWolf 'Bagger' a self-powered tiller head which can be mounted on standard military excavator vehicles.
This is most effective against AP mines and also for clearing heavy undergrowth and vegetation.
The partners haven't disclosed which elements from the MineWolf family are included in the bid, but believe they have the best MOTS solution.
Copyright - Australian Defence Magazine, December 2006/January 2007