Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:46, 29 October 2022

Latest revision as of 19:23, 3 May 2025

(6 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Short description|British logistics vehicle family}}

[[File:British military trucks.jpg|thumb|MMLC near [[Catterick Garrison|Catterick]], 2009]]

The '''Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System''' ('''DROPS''') iswas a family of logistics vehicles formerly operated by the [[British Army]], which consistsconsisted of two vehicle types:

* [[Leyland DAF]] medium mobility load carrier (MMLC)

* [[Edwin Foden, Sons & Co.|Foden]] improved medium mobility load carrier (IMMLC)

Both arewere able to transport 15-tonne flatracks or containers configured to ISO 20 feet standard and to load and offload them autonomously. Both may behave been supported with side rail transfer equipment (SRTE) for loading and unloading railway wagons.

The DROP system was designed to meet the very high intensity battles in Central Europe in the last decade of the [[Cold War]]. However, it entered service after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, but nevertheless proved a versatile vehicle system on operations completely different from those originally envisaged.

==Operational requirement==

Line 36 ⟶ 37:

== MMLC ==

Introduced in early 1990,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jane's Military Vehicles and Logistics, 1994-95 |publisher=Jane's Information Group |year=1994 |isbn=0710611625 |editor-last=Foss |editor-first=Christopher |edition=15th |___location=Coulsdon, Surrey |pages=610 |language=English |editor-last2=Gander |editor-first2=Terry}}</ref>, the truck was a military development of the commercial [[Leyland Motors#1980s|Leyland T45 roadtrainRoadtrain]]. As the company had entrusted to [[Scammell]] the development of the commercial eight-wheeled variant (S24 constructor range), the military variant was developed as the Scammell S26. Initially developed for the 1986 DROPS trials as a 6x6, the final 8x6 S26 had a Rolls -Royce Perkins 350 Eagle engine; a 12-litre diesel @ {{convert|350|hp|kW}}), a [[ZF Friedrichshafen|ZF]] six-speed automatic gearbox and [[Kirkstall Forge Engineering|Kirkstall]] axles.<ref name=ScamReg>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scammellregister.co.uk/history-of-scammell.html |title=History of Scammell |access-date=2011-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826185802/http://scammellregister.co.uk/history-of-scammell.html |archive-date=2011-08-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In February 1987 the company learned that its tender for 1,522 such vehicles was successful, but because the Leyland group merged with [[DAF Trucks]] of the Netherlands to form [[DAF NV]] the S26 would be built at the Leyland factory in [[Leyland, Lancashire]], allowing the complete closure of Scammell's [[Watford]] site.<ref name=ScamReg/> Leyland eventually produced 1,421 MMLC vehicles and a number of vehicle cabs ordered as spares. Due to damage, the entire MoD stock of spare cabs has now been exhausted.

Line 46 ⟶ 47:

==Replacement==

As both vehicles are now out of commercial production, resulting in vastly reduced and resultantly higher cost spares provision, and taking into account the wider geographic nature of modern British Army deployment, the MOD ishave developingretired aand replacementreplaced underthem with the [[Enhanced Pallet Load System|Enhanced Pallet Load System (EPLS)]], which will beis based on the 15 tonne [[MAN Truck & Bus|MAN]] [[MAN SX|SV]].

==See also==

Line 57 ⟶ 58:

[[Category:British Army equipment]]

[[Category:British forces in Germany]]

[[Category:Military vehicles of the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Military equipment of NATO]]

[[Category:Military vehicles introduced in the 1990s]]