Military

Hydrema 910 Mine Clearing Vehicle

The Hydrema 910 MCV is a mine clearing vehicle, designed for clearing of placed or buried personnel or antitank mines with up to 10 kg explosive weight.

The vehicle is capable of clearing a 3.5 meter wide track on firm ground such as roads and runways or on other types of ground. The clearing is done when the rotating flail detonates the mines by milling and hitting the ground. During the mine clearing process, the vehicle is driven by a hydrostatic system in the direction opposite to the normal driving direction. The clearing can be done using the joysticks or through the advanced computerized fully automatic pilot steering system.

The Hydrema has a metal protective shield and heavy chains that flail at high speeds to unearth, destroy or detonate mines on contact. The flail incorporates 72 chains and hammers (though more chains can be attached if desired) to detonate and destroy mines. I can be rotated in either directions.

A deflector plate made of armoured steel is mounted behind the flail. It provides an extremely high protection against blast and fragments, and preventing objects from being thrown on the vehicle. From the beginning, when clearing automatically, the driver chooses a few parameters on the monitor like e.g. ground conditions - and consequently the depth control of flail and deflector plate is done automatically.

When preparing the machine for distance transportation, the flail is automatically rotated into a longitudinal resting position onto the vehicle. This operation takes two approximately minutes.

Produced in Denmark, the vehicle was first put into service with the US military at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in order to clear dangerous areas. There, soldiers from the U.S. Army's 769th Engineer Battalion from Louisiana became the first Americans to be trained by Nowegians to operated the Hydrema.

As of mid-September 2003, three Hydrema mine-clearing vehicles were in operation at Bagram AF.

Because of the dust the Hydrema creates while in use, the vehicle cannot be operated at the same time as air operations.

The Hydrema operates separated engines for driving and flail operations. It is equipped with a hydrostatic pivot-steered chassis with anti-roll system and non-directional, bullet-proof tyres. The Hydrema can drive directly into a C-130 Hercules aircraft.