Final drive refurbishment for defence

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.

Challenge

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 the UK Government's Ministry of Defence (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 UK Ministry of Defence needed to refurbish or replace the final drive units on the CVR(T) platform. Successful execution of the programme required the supplier to accept units in for assessment, re-establish the supply chain, refurbish and replace the final drive and return to the MoD in accordance with the logistical requirements of the MoD.

Approach

Ricardo deployed the short lead-time capabilities developed in the motorsport market sector to address the very short lead-time requirements to first hardware. Along with Ricardo’s outstanding supply chain management capability ensured that availability of replacement components met or exceeded the expectations of the programme.

Deployment of the integrated transmission project team approach at the Drivetrain Centre of Excellence in Leamington Spa ensured a proactive approach to identify and resolving programme issues to protect the schedule and quality expectations.

The refurbishment contract included 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.

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.

Results

Ricardo’s familiarity with the automotive standard of traceability and quality supported high value delivery and as such the programme was delivered on budget and time to the MoD to maintain the serviceability of these vehicles and their important status as part of the MoD ground fleet.

This contract showcases Ricardo’s ability 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.