Mercedes-Benz Special Chassis — FGA Component Kit / FGA 14.5

The armoured mono­coque wheeled vehi­cles used world­wide for demand­ing oper­a­tions are extreme­ly com­plex sys­tems which have to be con­sid­ered under both tech­ni­cal and eco­nom­ic points of view – in par­tic­u­lar with regard to their research and devel­op­ment. First and fore­most are the user’s require­ments as they pro­vide the func­tion­al cri­te­ria for the sys­tem “vehi­cle” as a whole. When select­ing and installing appro­pri­ate com­po­nents it is essen­tial to have know-how sup­plied by var­i­ous spe­cialised depart­ments (for installing the vehi­cle, armoured and oth­er sys­tems) in order to come up to users’ expec­ta­tions regard­ing both costs and devel­op­ment. Here both the man­u­fac­tur­ers of armoured troop car­ri­ers as well as armed forces world­wide are con­front­ed with the fol­low­ing challenges: 

FGA Com­po­nent Kit Click to enlarge

• The increas­ing com­plex­i­ty of the sys­tems which have to be installed in extreme­ly con­fined spaces
• Dwin­dling defence bud­gets, which means that all cur­rent and new projects have to be reviewed
• Obso­lete fleets of vehi­cles, which were not designed for future oper­a­tions and are there­fore in need of modernisation.
• The increas­ing impor­tance of reduced life-cycle costs
• A guar­an­teed sup­ply of spare parts and vehi­cle ser­vices for the entire life cycle of the vehicles

Regard­ing the choice of dri­ve­train con­cept, spe­cial­ists ought to be involved from the very begin­ning in order to make sure that vehi­cle projects move in the right direc­tion con­cern­ing aspects of devel­op­ment and costs both for the vehi­cle man­u­fac­tur­er and the final user. 

The estab­lish­ment of the new busi­ness unit “Spe­cial Chas­sis” is Mer­cedes-Benz Spe­cial Trucks’ answer to altered mar­ket needs. Based on the time-tried Mer­cedes-Benz Truck mod­u­lar assem­bly sys­tem, Mer­cedes-Benz Spe­cial Chas­sis is now pro­vid­ing an inte­gral sys­tem solu­tion for the entire vehi­cle with a “Com­po­nent Kit” which is absolute­ly in tune with the require­ments of mod­ern vehi­cle man­u­fac­tur­ers in the 21st cen­tu­ry as well as com­ing up to the lat­est mil­i­tary and tech­ni­cal vehi­cle standards. 

From Com­po­nent Kit to entire vehi­cle – that means for Mer­cedes-Benz Spe­cial Chas­sis pro­vid­ing a com­plete pack­age cov­ered by con­tract, guar­an­tee­ing com­plete tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial cus­tomer care from the sys­tem solu­tion “Com­po­nent Kit” right up to its instal­la­tion – which thus con­tributes to improved plan­ning pre­dictabil­i­ty for both vehi­cle man­u­fac­tur­er and end customer. 

This extreme­ly flex­i­ble approach makes Mer­cedes-Benz Spe­cial Chas­sis not only a reli­able devel­op­ment part­ner, but also the first choice when it comes to select­ing a “Com­po­nent Kit” sys­tem solu­tion espe­cial­ly when it is com­bined with the Mer­cedes-Benz world­wide service 

and spare parts net­work which ensures best pos­si­ble vehi­cle care through­out its whole life cycle and mod­er­ate life-cycle costs. 

One thing is true for all Mer­cedes-Benz Com­po­nent Kits: They include “mass-pro­duced com­po­nents adapt­ed to mil­i­tary require­ments”. With no lim­its set to diver­si­ty: whether two, three or four axles with vary­ing wheel­bas­es, ton­nage from 12.5 tonnes right up to 45 tonnes, 4, 6 or 8‑cylinder engines, man­u­al or auto­mat­ic trans­mis­sion, the most mod­ern elec­tron­ic archi­tec­ture and instru­ments. When select­ing a Com­po­nent Kit, the man­u­fac­tur­er of armoured mono­coque vehi­cles has recourse to time-tried safe­guard­ed com­po­nents and inter­faces (mechan­i­cal, elec­tric, hydraulic, pneu­mat­ic) which also come up to inter­na­tion­al STANAG standards. 

Using the “Com­po­nent Kit” sys­tem solu­tion to meet spe­cial mil­i­tary require­ments is how­ev­er not just of inter­est for new projects, but for upgrad­ing fleets of vehi­cles already in use. The improved per­for­mance stan­dards required for vehi­cles and new chal­lenges to be faced dur­ing oper­a­tions are good rea­sons for mod­ernising vehi­cles already used. The most impor­tant rea­son is how­ev­er to length­en the vehicle’s life cycle. Because a long life span saves resources and low­ers life-cycle costs. 

It does not mat­ter what man­u­fac­tur­ers of armoured vehi­cles require, they can rely on time- tried mass-pro­duced com­po­nents and decades of mil­i­tary vehi­cle know-how from Mer­cedes- Benz.