Ricardo makes first deliveries of CVR(T) vehicle drivelines to UK MOD

• Under a contract to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) placed in November 2018, Ricardo is responsible for the repair and overhaul of the final drive units of the British Army’s fleet of CVR(T) vehicles
• Deliveries of the first replacement final drives for this family of military workhorse tracked vehicles are now being made by Ricardo.

The CVR (T) – or Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance, tracked – fleet comprises a range of compact, highly mobile, and air-transportable tracked vehicles, including the Scimitar light reconnaissance tank and Spartan armoured personnel carrier, the Sultan command and control platform, the Samaritan ambulance, and the Samson armoured recovery vehicle.
 
The CVR(T) fleet has been a stalwart of recent British Army operational deployments and been in service for decades, so an early task for Ricardo under this contract with MOD was to investigate the historic supply of driveline components and establish a robust new process and supply chain to support the refurbishment the remaining operational CVR(T) vehicles which still pay a significant role with the British Army.
 
The refurbishment contract being managed by Ricardo includes re-manufacturing of the key torque path components of the final drives. At the outset, Ricardo was required to establish a fixed process of accepting, stripping and evaluating the condition of the final drives (two per vehicle) prior to agreeing a refurbishment or replacement action plan with the MOD for each component, and re-manufacturing, rebuilding and packaging to modern UK defence standards. For many components, Ricardo has had to reverse engineer the existing parts to derive the necessary data and information to support the manufacture of new replacements. With the first new CVR(T) final drive units now delivered by Ricardo, work will continue on the remainder of the fleet over the coming months.
 
“The CVR(T) Final Drives are essential to ensure that the platform keeps pace with the constantly evolving operational demands, whilst meeting the high safety standards of the MOD,” commented Brigadier Anna-Lee Reilly, head of the Vehicle Support Team, MOD Abbey Wood. “The first four units have now been delivered and will be deployed immediately to the British Army Training Unit (BATUS) to allow us to effectively harness the full capability of CVR(T).  Throughout, a strong working relationship with Ricardo has underpinned the project’s success; enhancing the ability to find agile solutions to the most complex and technical challenges from the project’s inception.”
 
“This work – in refurbishing the drive system of a legacy vehicle to modern defence industry standards – demonstrates the flexibility and adaptability of the Ricardo Performance Products team,” added Ricardo Performance Products MD Martin Starkey. “Ricardo is already extremely well known in this sector for our work in the design and manufacture of new, state-of-the-art vehicles such as the British Army’s Foxhound fleet, but this contract showcases our abilities to extend the life of existing vehicle fleets, including, where necessary, reverse engineering legacy parts and establishing a modern supply chain to deliver replacements to the very latest defence industry standards.”