The withdrawal of a second contender to supply both Armoured and Tactical Bridging Systems for the British Army’s TYRO project, means that UK military bridge designer and manufacturer WFEL is now the sole bidder.
Project TYRO aims to provide UK Heavy Forces with Close Support Bridge (CSB) and General Support Bridge (GSB) capabilities for the British Army’s Royal Engineers (RE) to cross wet and dry gaps, both on the battlefield and in emergency and disaster relief situations.
The TYRO requirements are for Close Support Bridges (CSB) to be deployed, launched and recovered from armoured vehicles (AVLB) and a wheeled launcher (WVLB) and for the General Support Bridges (GSB) to be self-deployed, providing MLC 100 (Tracked) capability in order to support unrestricted crossing by UK Heavy Forces.
The Assessment Phase (AP) of Project TYRO has already been successfully completed by WFEL, with the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) being issued in September 2020. Negotiations for the Demonstration & Manufacture phase will now commence in the summer of 2021.
The bridging solutions offered by WFEL include the DSB Dry Support Bridge – which can be fully deployed by only eight people and a single launch vehicle in under 90 minutes – for the GSB requirement; to meet the CSB requirement, WFEL offers KMW’s LEGUAN Bridge. The LEGUAN’s fully automatic, horizontal bridge-laying capability provides increased stealth with a low silhouette during a five-minute bridge launch and will be adapted to be launched and recovered from the MoD’s already in-service TITAN armoured bridge launchers and a new wheeled bridge launcher.
The TYRO Assessment Phase saw WFEL carrying out comprehensive stress and fatigue testing, to verify MLC ratings and life expectancy of the different bridge types and also allowing WFEL to incorporate future Bridge Fatigue Management Systems.
WFEL and KMW extensively demonstrated the capabilities of their mobile bridging systems against MoD user requirements, with particular emphasis on the systems’ load carrying capability and overall durability.
image courtesy of WFEL
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Post written by: Matt Brown
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