Tactical bridging capability

Brian M Walters

Wednesday, 18 June, 2008

WFEL is totally focused on the design and production of the best bridges available for military and civil emergency applications, as is evident on Stand O100h.
The company’s team of specialists understand what military users need from tactical military bridges and have consistently exceeded their expectations over the past 40 years.
Seen here, the latest addition to its range is the Air Portable Ferry Bridge (APFB) based on the highly successful Medium Girder Bridge (MGB), a lightweight, easily transported aluminium alloy bridge, which set new standards when it was introduced in 1971. Since then, more than 520 units have been purchased by 38 customers worldwide.
Now in service with the UK’s Royal Engineers, the new APFB has many parts in common with the MGB. The APFB meets the British Army’s requirements for a new bridging system that offers mobility and flexibility to Light and Fly Forward Forces such as in Afghanistan, where the APFB has been operationally deployed.
The APFB is a complete modular system that can be transported rapidly and easily by land, sea and air to reach even remote locations. It has been designed to MLC 35, and can be used to bridge wet and dry gaps, employed as an overbridge or as a free ranging ferry system. It is an adaptable system, which can be hand-built by troops or trained civilians in military or civil emergency applications.
The APFB’s versatility is enhanced even further by the facility to configure transportation using its own trailers, pallets or ISO containers, making it ideal for disaster relief operations as well as Fly Forward Forces.