BLAZING THROUGH HOSTILE GROUNDS

Developed over five years by Singapore Technologies Kinetics, the latest technological addition to the Singapore Armed Forces Combat Engineers is a single-engine mine-clearing vehicle that flails through mine-infested terrain to clear a 3.2m-wide path in a mere seven minutes for a 100m lane.

With hammer-shaped steel heads attached to as many steel chains, the business end of the Trailblazer Counter-Mine chains, the business end of the Trailblazer Counter-Mine Vehicle (CMV) pounds at the ground like a giant harvester.

The Trailblazer is the only Military Load Class (MLC) 30 armoured mine-clearing vehicle in the world. Its load classification makes it one of the most compact CMVs in the world.

It was in achieving this level of compactness, which the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) had asked Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics to work on, that the latter designed and produced a one-step hydraulic transmission for the Trailblazer.

Innovative transmission

Most CMVs available today use two engines coupled with two transmissions - one to move the vehicle at high speeds and the other to handle the low-speed requirements during flailing. CMVs typically crawl along at less than 3kmh to clear mines.

"Conventional transmissions are not designed to manage extremely low speeds all the time. That's why most CMVs have dual engine-transmission set-ups.

"To bypass the need for two engines and two transmissions, we developed the Hydro-Mechanical Continuous Variable Transmission (HMCVT)," said Mr Chew Ming Chiang, Senior Manager Operations, ST Kinetics. Mr Chew was part of the team responsible for the Trailblazer s development.

Through a combination of hydraulics and gear sets, HMCVT enables the Trailblazer to travel at low speeds for mine clearing and at road-going speeds without the need for two separate power trains.

This versatility makes a single-engine CMV possible, thus saving space and reducing maintenance needs.

Pinpoint marking

Also wholly developed by ST Kinetics is the Trailblazer s Kinetics Route Indicator System (KRIS) that gives it its automated lane marking capability. This dispenses rods to mark out a safe path for friendly troops and vehicles.

After scouring the world for a suitable off-the-shelf system, the team found that existing lane-marking systems did not have the level of accuracy that the SAF had hoped for.

KRIS is a revolver-style pneumatic system which dispenses rods as close to the Trailblazer s sides as possible. This ensures that the indicated lane follows the actual cleared path closely and thus increases the level of safety for troops and vehicles that will use the path later.

The SAF received its first Trailblazer in December 2008 and regular shipments of subsequent vehicles began earlier in March.

The Trailblazer will be deployed by the Singapore Combat Engineers who are responsible for enhancing troop mobility, among their other roles.