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Background – TAPV Project – BAE Systems
Hägglunds Alligator |
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Update: 08 June 2012 – DND has announced that Textron Systems Canada has been awarded a $603M
contract as TAPV contest winner.
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Hägglunds' SEP Hybrid-Drive Technology Demonstrator Begets a Toothy Archosaur
A decade ago the 'future' of armoured vehicles was hybrid drives. BAE Hägglunds SEP diesel electric hybrid
demonstrators were built as full track vehicles (on Soucey bandtracks) and as wheeled vehicles (8x8 or 6x6). The
point of SEP was to demonstrate hybrid drivetrain flexibility while also show-casing a modular approach to
armoured vehicle design. BAE Hägglunds has since ended SEP development but its inheritor, the more
conventionally-driven 6x6 Alligator has been shortlisted for the TAPV contest.
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SEP: Radical Genotype to Conventional Phenotype
The Alligator retains the modular approach of its progenitor but not SEP's hybrid drive. As a
result, where the SEP 6x6 could turn on its own axis, the more conventional Alligator has a
turning radius of 23m. [1] Despite drivetrain changes, Alligator retains SEP's modularity
(which could be a bonus for TAPV). Alligator is really an attempt to reduce both the cost of SEP and the
technological risk. [2] That was not enough to secure a place for Alligator (in 8x8 form) in its domestic
market.
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Rather less cryptic is the armament offered for that 6x6 Alligator. Like SEP before it, the
Alligator is displayed with a RWS from another Swedish BAE subsidiary, the Lemur from Bofors. As per
TAPV requirements, Lemur can handle a heavy machine gun or automatic grenade launcher. And Lemur
has already been offered to DND by BAE (with DEW Engineering). All unknowns aside, Alligator may be bigger than
anticipated for TAPV but this may be a benefit as the roles bloat. Hägglunds has turned a pricey silk purse
into a workaday handbag. Now it must avoid turning into a marketing pig's ear.
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[1] BAE Systems Hägglunds hasn't been very forthcoming about its TAPV submission. The quoted turning radius is
for an 8x8 Alligator.
[2] Swedish press reports claim that an 8x8 Alligator would cost a quarter of an equivalent SEP. In North
America, the dominant attitude (springing, in part, from the US Army's TARDEC) has been to let the civilian sector
take the technological risks of hybrid drive before the Army picks it up cheap. It can be argued that the effect
has been to hand any modest technological lead over to European manufacturers.
[3] BAE and Hägglunds are both stinging from losing a Swedish Army competition to their Finnish competitor,
Patria. With hindsight, the more conventional Alligator-type alternative should have been offered to Sweden
alongside the expensive SEP in the first place. But that is water under the bridge and Hägglunds is laying off.
The puzzle now is why BAE doesn't either go all out marketing Alligator or pack in.
[4] Crew layout, at least, is obvious. As with 6x6 SEP, driver & veh cdr side-by-side at the front, gunner
behind, + 4 dismounts at the rear. Specs for the 8x8 Alligator are: 2 x 272 hp Steyr M16 TCI, 7-spd trans,
curb weight 27,000 kg; L 6.8m; W 2.8m; W 2.25m; 100 km/h on road.
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Fumbling Around in the Gloom: Matching Your Customer's Paranoia or Last in the Marketing Class?
There is a great deal of media confusion over SEP and Alligator. Yet BAE has done little to 'lift the
veil'. [3] There is a promo video hinting at 6x6 Alligator features but the BAE Hägglunds website
provides no details at all. [4] SEP was powered by twin Steyr diesels and Alligator may retain
them but the actual driveline is anyone's guess. Ditto for weights, dimensions, and other details an informed
citizenry require to judge a contest like TAPV. Nice truck, pity about the marketing