Mid Worcestershire MP Peter Luff, who is also Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, was on his home patch at Throckmorton on Thursday. He was receiving on behalf of MoD the first of a batch of new equipment designed to monitor the mechanical health of armoured vehicles from the contractor, General Dynamics.
The company’s press release below gives all the details.
General Dynamics UK delivers first vehicle Health and Usage Monitoring System to British Army in record time
London, United Kingdom – Peter Luff, the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology (MinDEST), has personally taken delivery of the first fully qualified vehicle Systems Information Exploitation / Health and Usage Monitoring System (SIE/HUMS) ‘box’ a mere four months after the contract was signed. Visiting General Dynamics UK’s test and evaluation facility at RAF Pershore near Throckmorton today, the Minister was briefed on how the SIE/HUMS system will monitor on-board systems on the British Army’s operational training fleet of vehicles and automatically download vehicle data, simplifying the job of the Army’s fleet managers.
The SIE/HUMS system will automatically monitor each vehicle returning to base from operations and identify whether it needs any repair or service. The data is uploaded wirelessly to the fleet manager’s system, eliminating the need to check over each vehicle individually. The data can then be used to order the right spare parts for the right vehicles at the right time. The system will lessen the load on the logistics system and lower maintenance costs whilst improving turnaround time across the fleet, ensuring they can be back in operations as quickly as possible.
The SIE/HUMS boxes have been manufactured and tested to stringent MoD standards by General Dynamics UK, working in partnership with a South Wales small and medium enterprise (SME), Analogue and Micro Ltd., to ensure the integration into the 578 vehicles in the operational training fleet can begin as quickly as possible.
Minister for Defence Equipment Support and Technology Peter Luff said, “This technology will help keep more of our vehicles on the road and available for training. These companies show exactly what can be achieved when prime contractors and small and medium-sized companies work closely together to meet a common goal. Being able to provide kit for our troops quickly is vital and I am keen to see more of this kind of success across the defence industry.”
Mark Douglas, vice president at General Dynamics UK, said, “Our ability to deliver the first fully compliant SIE/HUMS box into the Minister’s hands today, only four months after contract signature, is a result of selecting suppliers who are suitably qualified and motivated to work to the timeframes and standards required by military programmes. This work clearly demonstrates what can be achieved when prime contractors like ourselves work with companies from the small and medium enterprise community. We remain a strong advocate of SME businesses as they prove innovative, enthusiastic and most importantly cost-effective.”
The SIE/HUMS system will monitor on-board systems and automatically download data from each vehicle so that operators and fleet managers have accurate information to use in optimizing vehicle use and minimising maintenance. The visibility of vehicle-performance data will enable users to improve fleet availability thereby delivering better Army vehicle fleet-management capability.
The vehicles to be integrated over the next two years are Mastiff, Ridgeback, Husky, Jackal, Coyote and Wolfhound, all of which General Dynamics UK is familiar with through its Bowman integration activity. General Dynamics UK won the competition to provide SIE/HUMS based on the cost-effectiveness of its solution, taking advantage of General Dynamics UK’s excellent track record in delivering UOR programmes on time and on budget, along with the pedigree of integrating over 15,000 vehicles from the British Army’s fleet.