Amphibious earth moving plant

[rickshaw]

I was reading another forum discussing Iranian Armour when these pictures appeared:









They apparently show Iranian amphibious earth moving plant, used during their offensives in the Iran-Iraq War.

For instance, during Operation Valfajr-8 in early-1986 and Operation Karbala-5 in early-1987 there were quite a few large amphibious operations carried out by Iran. I'd imagine that because Iran relied on overwhelming numbers of light infantry, and lacked amphibious armor (like BTR-50s or 60s), the use of pontoon bridges was really the only option available for getting hundreds of battalions across the rivers, canals and other water obstacles that saturated Southern Iraq. AFAIK, the bridges that Iran constructed were among the longest of their type in the world - the Khaybar bridge is 14 km long(picture 1, picture 2, picture 3). I suppose that putting the equipment on floats was really the only way to build these enormous pontoon bridges.

Komatsu, the Japanese earth moving equipment builder has built several civilian vehicles for this sort of task:

Komatsu underwater bulldozer





Underwater Excavator

[Hobbes]

Interesting.

In the same vein, this is a Beach Armored Recovery Vehicle [BARV] (based on the Leopard 1) in use with the Dutch Navy:

[markmarples]

Interesting.

In the same vein, this is a Beach Armored Recovery Vehicle [BARV] (based on the Leopard 1) in use with the Dutch Navy:

there is somthing like that at doncaster aeroventure 

[PR19_Kit]

That one at Doncaster is a Centurion BARV, and  that's about my sum knowledge of tanks!  

[markmarples]

thats more than i know

[PR19_Kit]

thats more than i know

Heheh, I only know that because Vickers used one as a 'back stop' when we were testing the winch on the Chieftain ARV as the BARV weighed about 37 tons and was effectively immovable when it was sideways on. 

[Jschmus]

The Indian Army have trialled something similar, an earthmover built on the chassis of the BMP-2.




Found on heavyequipmentforums.com

[raafif]

that's very similar to the Russian BMP-based one


And the Russian AZM which is based on a MT-LB.



and then there's the American M9 ACE mobile dumpster ...


-- tho of course like the M-113 with dozerblade these are all only just amphibious....

Then of course, there is the British CET ...

[rickshaw]

What is interesting about the CET is that the bucket is on the back and when working, it drives in reverse.  When moving normally, it drives forward.  The two crew sit back to back with essentially the same driving controls.  I suspect it is the same for that first BMP based vehicle.   I know the CET is fully amphibious (with a big airbag strapped in the bucket), are the BMP and MT-LB ones?

[The Big Gimper]

On a tangential note, there are days when the idiot drivers are on the roads en-mass and one these bad boys would certainly IMHO:

A. Improve the traffic flow once I push those you-know-what-drivers into the ditch with a crushed boot/trunk and roof
B. Make me feel better.

Carl

[rickshaw]

Bad day on the freeway? 

[raafif]

The MT-LB is semi-amphibious as are all Russian armoured vehicles.  One day I might start my AA CET model.

You should try driving down here in Tasmania ...
      speed limt = 60kmh -- max speed of old farts = 40kmh
      speed limit = 110kmh -- max speed of old farts = 70kmh
      a red light = go to sleep until someone blows their horn at you
      ALWAYS join a main road from side turnings at min speed of 35kmh & NEVER look for approaching traffic ! -- I was gut-off TWICE in 5 minutes by a 70y.o. chinese woman in a red BMW    What cornflake packet do these people get their driving-licences out of

I need a full-size ARV 

[NARSES2]

      a red light = go to sleep until someone blows their horn at you
   

Reminds me of a time when I was staying in California with friends. We got caught at the lights as a freight train crossed, went for breakfast, came back and it was still crossing  Need more then a ARV for that 

[kitnut617]

Reminds me of a time when I was staying in California with friends. We got caught at the lights as a freight train crossed, went for breakfast, came back and it was still crossing  Need more then a ARV for that 

They're like that around here (Western Canada), longest one I've seen and got stopped by was 150 cars long (nothing else to do but count them as they went by), it had eight locos pulling/pushing it, three in front, three about a third of the way back and the other two another third back.

[rickshaw]

To add to the thread drift, I see that BHP ran the world's longest train on 21 June 2001, comprising 682 wagons and hauled by eight 6000 hp General Electric AC6000CW diesel-electric locomotives controlled by a single driver with a total length of 7.353 km on the 275 km iron ore railway to Port Hedland in Western Australia – total weight 99,734 tons!