8254 / Initial steps towards characterization of a new military cold weather all-terrain vehicle...

Paper presented at the 16th European-African Regional Conference of the ISTVS

https://doi.org/10.56884/FEDF3359

Title: Initial steps towards characterization of a new military cold weather all-terrain vehicle for performance in northern operations

Authors: Clifford Witte, Orian Welling, Michael Parker, Michael Stearns, and Zach Tomberg

Abstract: The US Army Corps of Engineers - Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory recently acquired two quad articulatedtrack cold weather all-terrain vehicle prototypes to begin characterization of their performance on winter surfaces for force projection, modeling, and simulation. The vehicles were previously used in the Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle (CATV) program initiated by the United States Army to select a replacement for the aging Bandvagn 206, designated in the US Army fleet as the Small Unity Support Vehicle (SUSV) and in service for over forty years. Researchers at CRREL have extensive experience testing US Army SUSVs and NATO Bv206s in cold regions and have documented the vehicles as one of the most capable in severe weather conditions ranging from flooding, deep mud or thawing ‘rasputitsa’, or deep snow. At the US Army Mountain Warfare School, the SUSV remains the vehicle of choice for search and rescue in extreme weather. The new prototype vehicles delivered to CRREL are based on the ST Engineering ‘Bronco’ All-Terrain Tracked Carrier (ATTC) currently in service by Singapore and Thailand militaries and previously deployed by the United Kingdom in Afghanistan. While the US Army ultimately selected the BAE Systems ‘Beowulf’ as the winner of the CATV program, the tractive performance has been identified by CRREL as comparable between the candidate vehicles with similar articulated quad track design and dimensions, ground pressure, and power delivery. By utilizing the prototype vehicles, researchers at CRREL will gain a head start toward characterizing the CATV in winter conditions before entering service in 2024. This paper will detail the experimental setup, analysis and results for testing conducted in 2023 in Dalton, New Hampshire as well as how the results will be used to begin updating current mobility prediction models.

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