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von der seite The SRATS agile vehicle made its debut at last October's AUSA show. It created quite an impression, both for the enthusiasm of its developer, SRATS CEO Dr Kent Stephens, and for videos of the vehicle scaling vertical cliffs with the aid of ropes, clambering over improbably large obstacles, and scooting quickly across deserts.
Following an evaluation of three prototypes - known as the Enhanced Logistic Off-Road Vehicle (ELSORV) - in Afghanistan, SRATS Inc has been awarded a $6 million contract for 18 production vehicles for Special Operations Command.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) "thought this was the biggest boondoggle they'd ever seen" Stephens said, "until we put three of their guys in it and drove them up a 135-foot vertical cliff." Stephens based the SRATS (Specialized Reconnaissance, Assault, Transport System) on vehicles which he'd commissioned in order to reach fly-fishing streams that nobody else could get to.
Technically, ELSORV is a hybrid of two extreme off-road vehicle tyypes - sand rails and rock crawlers. It can be armored to resist 7.62 mm fire and can carry a 2700 pound payload.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs...b-1dfe9909ab0aAgility or Armor?
On display at the Association of the US Army (AUSA) show is one of three prototypes of the SRATS (Specialized Reconnaissance, Assault, Transport System). The Army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF) ordered the vehicles, and they have passed basic tests by the Army Test and Evaluation Command and - last week - a military unit assessment. The vehicles will be tested in combat within weeks.
SRATS had teamed with Armor Holdings to build the military prototypes, before Armor Holdings was acquired by BAE Systems, and the SRATS vehicle is on show at the BAE booth.
Stephens, a mathematics PhD and professor who has been an advisor to the Army leadership on risk avoidance and expert systems, calls SRATS "a hobby run amok". A fanatical fly fisherman, Stephens started to commission his own extreme off-road vehicles to get to fishing spots that others could not reach. A conversation with a senior Army officer led to that experience being applied to a military vehicle.
Stephens is cagey about how SRATS works. (At one time in his career, he says, he had his office fitted with an unobtrusive back door in case of media visits.) The vehicle weighs 6800 pounds in basic trim and 8800 pounds with 7.62 mm armor applied. It's powered by either an AM General Humvee 6.5 liter engine or a Duramax diesel, either of which is upgunned by about 100 hp using SRATS technology. But, Stephens says, the drivetrain and suspension have been developed by a process which he calls "experience before engineering", developing the necessary technology to keep all four wheels in contact with the ground. On SRATS' video, too, it's clear that at least one version of the vehicle has four-wheel steering.
Current mine-resistant vehicles are turning into "mobile pillboxes,"Stephens says - it's a hard statement to deny at a show where armor manufacturers are displaying six-inch-thick counter-EFP panels - but Stephens argues that it's much harder to set an IED trap for a vehicle that doesn't have to use roads. One army leader, says Stephens, has called SRATS "a cartridge in a world of muzzle-loaders."
Lieben Gruß
