British Army mobility programmes – a strategy to replace legacy equipment

The British Army intends to embark on a number of procurement programmes in the mobility sector, which include the Light Tactical Mobility Platform (LTMP) Light and the LTMP Medium. Subsumed into these efforts is the former General Support Utility Programme (GSUP), which was aimed at finding a replacement for the Land Rover fleet and similar vehicles. Finally, to round off British Army mobility efforts, reference must also be made to the broader Land Mobility Programme (LMP), which covers the replacement of a number of existing protected mobility platforms.

Before discussing the mechanics of these programmes, it is important to place them within the context of the British politics and beyond that, the defence budgetary environment. With the Labour Party’s landslide victory on 4 July 2024, John Healey is the new Defence Secretary, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his commitment to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence, and commissioned a Strategic Defence Review (SDR) to provide the basis for national defence policy going forward. The SDR is due to be delivered in the first half of 2025, and will look at current and projected future defence procurement programmes to determine whether these fit in with the defence policy of the new Labour government.

In recent years, the previous Conservative government’s official position was that there would be an increase in defence expenditure and that more resources would be made available for defence modernisation programmes. Plenty of references were made to the unstable international situation and that Britain could not afford to have weak defences in that environment. That all sounded fine, but in the real world the many glaring weaknesses of the British military have not yet been adequately addressed.

The challenge for the Labour government will be dealing with a sluggish national economy, while enacting progressive social policies and pushing government spending into new areas. While maintaining the previous target of 2.5% of GDP on defence will be welcomed, the reality of the situation is that a little more money will not necessarily solve the problems that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is faced with. The procurement system is inefficient and error-ridden, financial management within the MoD is poor, and the suggestion is that financial commitments exceed the ability of the MoD to pay for them within existing budgetary limits. Dealing with these properly would require a root and branch reform of the procurement system and indeed the MoD as a whole. This would be a herculean task.

All of which means that many current programmes may have an insecure future, as the Labour government attempts to get to grips with the problems of the MoD and procurement.

The light side

The LTMP programme had been spilt into two separate programmes, the first of which was the LTMP Light programme; the MoD released a contract notice for LTMP Light on 25 August 2023. According to the notice, the contract is expected to cover the purchase of a minimum of 156 LTMP Light platforms, either utility terrain vehicles (UTV) and/or all-terrain vehicles (ATV). With the inclusion of through-life support for the chosen platform in the procurement contract, options in the contract could see the LTMP Light programme increased to 311 vehicles. Bidders can only offer one platform in response to the tender.

Performance requirements for the LTMP Light, as given in the contract notice are as follows: minimum ground clearance (fully laden) of 180+ mm, minimum payload capability of 270+ kg, minimum speed of 40 km/h on road when towing a weight of 450 kg; and the LTMP Light vehicle should also be able to be legally driven on UK roads. The initial support period for the selected vehicle will be for five years, although this could be extended for another five years in one-year increments. The estimated programme value was given as GBP 10.4 million, excluding VAT.

The British Army made substantial use of ATVs in Afghanistan, although these should really be referred to as Quad Bikes, with commercial models from Honda and Yamaha being the primary systems acquired. The next phase of acquisitions saw Quad Bikes modified to military requirements by external contractors, then came Quad Bikes built to full military specifications from the start. Trailer systems were also acquired, with light bridging systems also acquired to support the Quad Bikes.

Afghanistan proved that Quad Bikes were very useful operational tools, since they gave units the ability to take the fight to the enemy on long-range patrols and engage from unexpected locations; additionally, they were also very useful for casualty evacuation and for bringing up supplies. Prior to these the British Army had used the Supacat all-terrain mobility platform (ATMP). The Supacat Mk 2 had won the MoD ATMP programme with 36 vehicles entering service in 1988, which was followed in 1996 with a contract for more vehicles and trailers. The ATMP was used in both Gulf Wars, in Kosovo and in Afghanistan, but due to the fact that no measures were taken to support the ATMP fleet, it had to be withdrawn from service.

At this point Supacat were asked whether they could produce more ATMPs or perhaps an improved variant, though they were unable to respond as they were producing other vehicles for the British Army at the time. This led to the issuance of an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) for a new ATV, which saw Enhanced Protection Systems awarded a contract for 78 of their Springer vehicles in 2009, with first deliveries made to Afghanistan in 2010. Unfortunately, the Springer was a disappointment and was withdrawn from service in Afghanistan in early 2011, with the vehicle removed from British Army inventory by September 2011.

Since that time, numerous ATV systems have been evaluated by the British Army, including unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). Supacat has gone on to develop the MK III and Mk IV variants of the ATMP and followed that up by developing a hybrid variant (H-ATMP), all of which indicates that there are numerous options to be investigated for LTMP Light.

Moving to medium

The contract notice for the LTMP Medium programme was released on 25 August 2023. The contract value for this programme was given as GBP 80.9 million, covering both the procurement and the through-life support of the selected LTMP Medium vehicle. The initial purchase covers up to 48 LTMP Medium UTVs, which must operate on diesel/AVTUR F-34 fuel, as well as trailers. Contract options could amount to a total of 863 vehicles. The winning bidder must have demonstrable experience of providing through life support for a vehicle fleet.

Outline performance requirements for the LTMP Medium UTV system are as follows: side-by-side configuration (driver and passenger), platform legal to drive on UK roads, minimum speed of 65 km/h when towing at maximum weight, minimum payload capability (personnel, equipment and stores) of 600 kg+, minimum ground clearance (fully loaded) of 180 mm+, trailer weight and payload not to exceed towing capability of the platform or its width. The initial support period for the selected vehicle will be for five years, although this could be extended for another five years in one-year increments.

This article previously mentioned the General Support Utility Programme (GSUP) which was for a 4×4 vehicle, essentially a Land Rover replacement programme. Rugged though it is, the Land Rover has a finite service life and more recently the traditional Land Rover has been replaced in production by a more modern and consumer-focused vehicle. All of which means that the search for a Land Rover replacement had to begin, especially since British Army Land Rover fleet numbers have been declining year-on-year.

According to official figures, in 2020 the British Army had 7,595 Land Rovers in service, and in 2021 numbers had declined to 6,756. The decline continued in 2022 to 6,609 and by 1 April 2023 the fleet number was down to 6,532 meaning that in just over four years 1,063 Land Rovers had been withdrawn from service, some 14% of the total fleet. Assuming that the rate of decline in the Land Rover fleet continues at the present level, there will still be plenty of vehicles around for the foreseeable future. The Land Rover out-of-service date is 2030.

It is worth noting that the old Land Rover is making an important contribution to future UTV systems through Project Lurcher. In April 2023, Babcock were given a contract to convert two Revised Weapons Mounted Installation Kit (RWMIK) Land Rovers and two standard General Service Land Rovers into electric vehicles (EV), in association with partner Electrogenic. After conversion to EV configuration, the British Army Armour Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) went on to trial the vehicles to assess the strengths and weaknesses of EVs in a military environment.

Babcock is also proposing their General Logistics Vehicle (GLV) design, based on the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 to meet British UTV requirements. The Toyota Land Cruiser 70 is actually in use with British Special Forces, as it provides the basis for the Al Thalab long-range patrol vehicle (LRPV), developed by Jankel and the King Abdullah II Design & Development Bureau (KADDB) joint venture, Jordan Light Vehicle Manufacturing (JLVM).

Protected legacy

British Army involvement in the asymmetric conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan, exposed a significant capability gap in protected mobility vehicles in the face of a rapidly escalating mine and improvised explosive device (IED) threat. This forced the British Army to urgently look to acquire protected mobility that could survive the mine/IED threat. The US military, facing a similar threat, had come up with a new class of vehicle, the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) system. A wide variety of MRAP systems in different weight classes became available, with the British Army acquiring some seven different vehicles to meet protected mobility requirements.

The protected mobility fleet included Mastiff, Ridgeback and Wolfhound vehicles, all derivatives of the Force Protection Cougar vehicle, in addition to the Foxhound, the British version of the Force Protection Ocelot, the Husky, a British variant of the International MXT-MV, and the Coyote, a Supacat HMT 600 6×6, and finally the Jackal, a Supacat HMT 400 4×4. As of 2016, the fleet size was: 71 Coyote, 398 Foxhound, 317 Husky, 437 Jackal, 421 Mastiff, 168 Ridgeback and 125 Wolfhound. By 2022, the Husky had been withdrawn from service, leaving the fleet size as follows: 72 Coyote, 398 Foxhound, 431 Jackal, 329 Mastiff, 164 Ridgeback and 88 Wolfhound.

The British Army had decided that it needed to institute a programme to replace legacy protected mobility systems; this resulted in the protected mobility pipeline (PMP), which was itself an outgrowth of a previous procurement effort known as multi role vehicle – protected (MRV-P), which had two elements in the form of the troop carrying vehicle (TCV), which also would also be the basis for a number of variants, with the second element being the future protected battlefield ambulance (FPBFA). To summarise, MRV-P was replaced by the PMP project and this in turn has been replaced by the Land Mobility Programme (LMP) which will rationalise British Army protected mobility fleets and cover the retirement of legacy vehicles currently in service across a range of sectors.

There are four areas covered by the LMP programme: LMP Heavy which will require 500 vehicles in the 20-40,000 kg range, LMP Medium covering 2,000 vehicles in the up to 20,000 kg range, LMP Light covering 2,500 vehicles in the up to 10,000 kg range and LMP Utility with 3,000 vehicles in the up to 7,000 kg range. It should be noted that LMP is separate to the LTMP Medium and LTMP Light programmes.

Four basic families of wheeled armoured vehicles provide the foundation for the LMP, with each vehicle type spawning a number of different variants to fulfil desired mission requirements. The vehicle is treated as a platform into which different mission system packages are integrated to cover the desired roles. The objective is to reduce the number of different vehicle types in service and instead focus on the four separate LMP vehicle families, which will reduce costs and ease the through-life support task.

The aim of all of these programmes is to finally replace legacy vehicles in British Army service and remove vehicles that no longer fit envisaged mission parameters. There is even the suggestion that LMP could cover the replacement for the venerable FV432 Bulldog; as of 1 April 2023, 746 of these vehicles were still in service and the stated out-of-service date is 2030, 67 years after the type first entered service! The problem in all of this is that the British Army has no problem generating new vehicle programmes – the problems come when trying to make these programmes a reality. With the new SDR due in less than a year, it’s a difficult time for new vehicle programmes!

David Saw