UK-based Pearson Engineering has developed and tested a lightweight interface for its front-end equipment (FEE) called ‘SLICE’, which is already being marketing to potential end users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The system is designed to be fitted onto main battle tanks (MBTs) and other armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) to provide a “plug and play capability” enabling these platforms to be speedily fitted with FEE, according to a company statement. Equipment options include a dozer blade or mine-clearing devices of the plough type to provide a “self-support capability,” it added.
SLICE is a lightweight interface specifically designed to be rapidly installed on the glacis plate of an MBT, without any modifications or “impact on the vehicles survivability and avoids any interference with the gun sweep or the driver’s visibility”, according to Pearson Engineering.
The Pearson Engineering SLICE can be installed on the front of an MBT such as the Leopard 2, without any effect on the mobility of the platform or the vision area of the driver. (Pearson Engineering )
SLICE has its own integrated hydraulic motor pump and control system and therefore does not rely on the host platform’s power supply. It can also be fitted onto or removed from the host platform in about 15 minutes, using a crane and basic tools. SLICE is linked to the operator’s control panel inside the hull, enabling crewmembers to raise or lower the FEE during operations.
Once SLICE is fitted onto an MBT, for example, an FEE such as Pearson Engineering’s Combat Dozer Blade (CDB) or Full Width Mine Plough (FWMP) equipment can be attached without any specialised equipment in well under 10 minutes.
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