Oshkosh [OSK] Defense has received a $13.3 million order from the Army to deliver new semitrailers for heavy transport trucks bound for Europe, with the deal set to potentially total $109.8 million and 170 trailers.
The new semitrailers for the Heavy Equipment Transport trucks were designed in partnership with Dutch manufacturer Broshuis B.V. and built to meet weight requirements for European road permissions.
“As the workhorse for the U.S. Army, the HET was uniquely designed to provide rapid movement of mission-critical equipment – tanks, armored vehicles, and recovery vehicles. As battlefields continue to evolve and payload weights increase, Soldiers now require an equally efficient, durable semitrailer that can be relied on to assure heavy equipment arrives in mission-ready condition,” Pat Williams, Oshkosh’s vice president of Army and Marine Corps programs, told Defense Daily.
The new award arrives following a three-month prototype test period that wrapped up in January at Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland, where officials evaluated the semitrailer’s payload capacity, transportability, and logistics capability.
“The HET semitrailer has a payload capacity of 85 tons, allowing Soldiers to transport even the heaviest equipment while also meeting European axle weight limits at 75 tons,” Williams said.
Company officials said the new semitrailer has eight hydraulically controlled power steered independent PL2 pendular axles, an auxiliary power unit that provides independent power and a compensating hydraulic gooseneck.
Oshkosh has been producing HET trucks for the Army since the 1970’s, and formed the partnership with Broshuis B.V. in 2018 to leverage the company’s experience manufacturing semitrailers.
Williams said the new semitrailers are expected to start fielding in November, and subsequent orders will be determined as the the Army and Oshkosh are still negotiating the final selling price for each unit.