Diesel engine and gas energy systems supplier MTU South Africa celebrated its 1 500th engine delivery to special- purpose military vehicle and service supplier DCD Protected Mobility, a division of the DCD industrial group, for its Husky project.
The locally produced Husky vehicle range is DCD Protected Mobility’s flag- ship product range and has proved useful in combat and conflict situations worldwide since the early 1980s. The Husky is now being used in countries such as Canada, the US, the UK, France, Australia and Spain, as well as in some African countries.
The compact MTU 6R106TD20 engine was selected for the Husky owing to its force of 150 kW at 2 200 rev/min that the vehicle requires. This enables the vehicle to manage difficult off-road terrain and steep hills. It is ideally equipped to address asym- metric threats, such as large rocks.
The Husky was initially developed following research projects by two local agencies – defence acquisition and research and development organisation Armscor and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. DCD industrialised the vehicle and manufactured it for the then South African Defence Force.
The Husky project is often operated as a system, previously known as the Chubby, to increase its capabilities; therefore, incremental improvements are under- taken continuously to develop DCD Protected Mobility’s intellectual property and support the products throughout their life cycle.
“We are proud of our partnership with DCD Protected Mobility and look forward to growing our businesses together [as we work on] future projects. The Husky project is a success story for our land defence industry,” concludes MTU South Africa MD Alan Rees.