Heavy Equipment Transport System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Heavy Equipment Transporter System)

Jump to: navigation, search

M1070 tractor

The Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) is a military logistics vehicle used to transport, deploy, and evacuate tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery, armored bulldozers and other heavy vehicles. Using HETs saves wear and tear on the tank, and is more cost efficient, as tanks are expensive to run and maintain. Since the tanks do not need to self-deploy to the battlefield, en route breakdowns are prevented, and more fighting vehicles will be available for combat.

[edit] M911/M746/M747

M911 tractor and M747 trailer with M60 Patton tank

Prior to 1993, the U.S. Army employed the Commercial Heavy Equipment Transporter (C-HET), which consists of either the M746 or the M911 truck tractor, with the M747 semitrailer. Close to 1200 of these trucks were built in the mid 1970s by Oshkosh Corporation of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.^[1] During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm the HET vehicles were employed primarily to haul M1 Abrams tanks. However, they demonstrated poor durability when loads exceeded 60 tons. Some are still serving as heavy transports of other military equipment, such as cargo handling equipment.

[edit] General Characteristics

	M911 tractor	M746 tractor	M747 trailer
Length:	30 feet	27 feet	48.2 feet
Width:	9.5 feet	10 feet	11.5 feet
Height:	11.8 feet	10 feet	6.8 feet
Weight:	26.3 tons	25.8 tons	17.1 tons
Speed:	43 miles per hour	38 miles per hour	N/A
Range:	614 miles	200 miles	N/A
Crew:	2	2	N/A
Engine:	430 hp Detroit Diesel (8V92TA)		N/A
Transmission:	5-speed automatic		N/A

[edit] M1070/M1000

An M1070 and M1000 loading an M88 Recovery Vehicle in southern Iraq

File:A Fox NBC-detection vehicle is transported by a HET trailer.jpg

In 1993 the U.S. Army started fielding the M1070 Truck Tractor and the M1000 Heavy Equipment Transporter Semi-trailer. The tractor is produced by Oshkosh Truck, and the trailer is manufactured by Systems & Electronics, Inc. in St. Louis. The HET transports payloads up to 70 tons – primarily Abrams tanks, but is also used for other large military equipment such as forklifts and various tracked vehicles. It is capable of operating on highways (with permits), secondary roads, and cross-country. This version of the HET has a number of features that significantly improve the mobility and overall performance of the system in a tactical environment. The M1070 tractor has front- and rear-axle steering, a central tire-inflation system, and cab space for six personnel to accommodate the two HET operators and four tank crewmen. The M1000 semi-trailer has automatically steerable axles and a load-leveling hydraulic suspension. It is air-transportable by both C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The Oshkosh 1070F (8×8) heavy equipment transporter (HET) became the new British Army heavy tank transporter in 2001 replacing the Scammell Commander. The Oshkosh Corporation have supplied over 2,600 Heavy Equipment Transporters to the US Army in various engine configurations such as the 1070E and the 1070E1. The UK version (1070F) is compliant to European legislation on emissions (EURO III).

[edit] General Characteristics

	M1070 tractor	M1000 trailer
Length:	30 feet 2 inches (9.19 m)	51 feet 10 inches (15.80 m)
Width:	8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m)	12 feet (3.7 m)
Height:	12 feet 1 inch (3.68 m)
Weight:	41,000 pounds (19,000 kg)	50,000 pounds (23,000 kg)
Speed:	40-45 mph	45 mph
Fuel:	150 Gallons in the driver-side tank, 100 Gallons in the passenger-side tank
Range:	300 miles
Crew:	2+4
Payload:	140,000 pounds (64,000 kg)
Engine:	500 horsepower Detroit Diesel 8V92	N/A
Transmission:	Allison CLT-755 5-speed automatic with TC-496 torque converter
Fording:	28 in