Report: Stephen Tyler

WHEN Dorset-based Universal Engineering set about designing a new military vehicle family, the company returned to the drawing board.

Dispensing with conventional ideas about chassis and armour, the firm stripped things right back so that all its designers started with was an image of three soldiers suspended in mid-air.

This troop-centric approach allowed the team to make the personnel’s needs a priority and their first job was to design a comfortable and safe crew area.

Once that was in place, Universal Engineering’s boffins bolted extra modules of kit around the seating area until they had created the blast-resistant, agile and capable truck known as Ranger.

“The challenge was to come up with one vehicle that has the mobility of the Jackal, the protection of the Mastiff and the payload of a support vehicle,” project manager John Scott told Soldier.

“We wondered how to do that as nobody had done it before, but that is because people tend to build the truck, add the armour and then whatever the soldiers need. We turned that process on its head and placed the soldier into the equation first.”

With IEDs overtaking small arms fire as the greatest threat facing British troops in modern theatres, every aspect of Ranger has been designed with blast survivability
in mind.

The personnel area is a fine example. The capsule is suspended from the Ranger’s roof so that it is not in contact with the base of the vehicle in the event of an explosion.

The V-shaped hull propels the force of a blast away from the Ranger’s body and the rear axles, meaning that the crew area remains safe.

And the modular approach extends to the 540hp diesel engine, which is mounted in an easily-removable power pack that again breaks clear of the vehicle’s passengers.

“The power pack on the front of the vehicle can be removed using just 16 bolts,” added Scott. “It can then be put back on in less than an hour.

All of the gear boxes sit on one big armoured tray which can be dropped out so they are immediately ready to be worked on as well.”

The chassis-less Ranger may be made up of hi-tech building blocks, but that does not mean it is short on protection.

All of the vehicle’s components can be fitted with a variety of armour depending on the environment it is being used in.

The all-important gearbox and transmission modules are protected from below by underbelly plates, while all windows are covered by bar armour.

To protect against small arms fire or RPG attacks, the Ranger’s sides can be beefed up with additional plates.

“It is completely tuneable to suit the user’s needs,” said Scott. “[The prototype] has aluminium armour fitted, but you can very easily change that to ceramic or steel or leave it off entirely.”

Despite its size – the 6x6 variant is 7.2m long and 2.5 metres wide – the Ranger is not short of a bit of poke and can comfortably reach speeds of nearly 120kph.

It is also surprisingly agile and proved its ability to scale steep gradients during a run-out at Bovington Training Area.

“I think the surprise for everybody who has been in it is its speed and mobility compared to its size,” said Scott. “It’s capable of doing 0-50kph in seven seconds.”

The Ranger began its journey into reality in late 2008 and is one of a number of concept vehicles currently being considered by the MoD.

Scott hopes the innovative modular design will eventually become a building block for further successes in Afghanistan.

“We are not relying on other people’s ideas – we have designed it from scratch,” he concluded. “We are very proud of what we have come up with.”