Engineering:Panama remote controlled vehicle
The Panama Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is a piece of mine-clearing equipment used by the British Armed Forces.
Design
The Panama ROV consists of a Snatch Land Rover modified for remote control operation, with a large piece of mine-detection equipment mounted to the front. It was created by Defence Equipment and Support, part of the Ministry of Defence, in conjunction with PA Consulting Group as a low-cost solution to mine detection in the War in Afghanistan.[1] Before the introduction of the Panama, an average of one person every week was killed, with five or six more being severely injured.[2]
The Panama vehicle is towed behind another vehicle – usually a Buffalo MRAP vehicle.[3] It can be unhitched from the towing vehicle without the crew having to expose themselves, and remotely driven to search for explosive devices.[2] A single system consists of two Panama vehicles and a control station.[3] They usually work as part of a Talisman team, which consists of two Buffalo Rummage and four Mastiff 'Protected Eyes' vehicles; two micro unmanned air vehicles (MUAV); two HMEEs; and two Talon UGVs.[3]
The vehicles are considerably cheaper than a bespoke solution, as they make use of the SN2A Snatch Land Rover, which was rendered obsolete due to poor armour protection.[1] The military had approximately 200 of these vehicles awaiting disposal.[1][4] The vehicle has been in use in Afghanistan since early 2011.[5]
History
The project took 11 months to move from procurement decision to operational use, and cost £50m in total, £9m less than expected.[1][4] The use of the Snatch Land Rovers awaiting disposal, rather than a new vehicle, saves an extra £8m over the length of the contract.[1][4] The programme was managed by the DE&S itself – with assistance from PA Consulting – which is unusual for procurement in the United Kingdom. However, despite the unorthodox method, the Land Rover was accepted as a solution. Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Parker of the Royal Engineers said of the choice, "There is a whole generation of technicians who are trained in their maintenance. There is a supply chain for the parts, all the manuals are written and all those thousands of parts are already codified to NATO standards. Using our scoring system, the Snatch came top."[2] Parker also said that, as the operator uses a simple computer display which is familiar to computer game players, soldiers can learn to use the vehicle in just one hour.[2]
The project, and PA Consulting Group, won the Management Consultancies Association Award for the best overall project in 2012.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Baxter, Andrew (2012-11-12). "'Panama': Groundbreaking project aids UK troops". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e53c7e8a-2cec-11e2-beb2-00144feabdc0.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Partridge, Chris (2012-05-17). "Army's mobile coffin finally earns its stripes". The Times (London). http://www.lexisnexis.com.remote.slc.edu/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T23373215227&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T23373215231&cisb=22_T23373215230&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10939&docNo=5.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "UV Europe 2011: Unmanned Snatch a work in progress – News – Shephard". https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/uv-online/uv-europe-2011-unmanned-snatch-a-work-in/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Protecting troops' lives in Afghanistan – UK Ministry of Defence". 20 April 2012. http://www.paconsulting.com/our-experience/pa-wins-top-prize-at-the-2012-mca-awards-for-life-saving-unmanned-ied-detection-system/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "PA Consulting Group wins top prize at the 2012 MCA awards – 23 April 2012". 23 April 2012. http://www.paconsulting.com/introducing-pas-media-site/releases/pa-consulting-group-wins-top-prize-at-the-2012-mca-awards-23-april-2012/.
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