BAE Systems won a competition for the CATV with its BvS10 Beowulf in 2022. (Janes/Patrick Allen)
Five Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicles (CATVs) have been delivered to the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, on 1 October, Major General Brian Eifler, commanding general of the division, told Janes on 11 October.
The US Army's CATVs – non-armoured variants of BAE Systems' BvS10 Beowulf – are at Fort Wainwright's Northern Warfare Training Center (NWTC) for operator training and testing.
As the 11th Airborne phases out the ageing small unit support vehicles (SUSVs), it is adding two snowmobiles per company until its CATVs are delivered, Maj Gen Eifler said in an interview on the sidelines of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2023 annual conference.
BAE Systems delivered the first two CATVs to the army for testing earlier in the boreal summer, the company told Janes on 25 September. Maj Gen Eifler confirmed an army announcement that the last three were delivered by the end of the fiscal year (FY).
The vehicle is growing more relevant as the US increases the number of multinational exercises it does in the Arctic, he said. It is light enough to be transported outside of Alaska, but it is sturdy enough to ford streams, Maj Gen Eifler said. “It's a good vehicle to help support our light infantry as we move in and around Arctic nations,” he said.
The number of operational SUSVs is down to “double digits”, making sustaining forces in deep snow more difficult, he said.
The idea to use snowmobiles in the interim came from the Canadian Armed Forces, he added. The 11th Airborne has a Canadian deputy commanding general of operations as part of an international partnership.
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