The BBC is trilling its little head off about the announcement that the decision to award the contract for the LPPV has gone to Force Protection Europe and Ricado, with their Ocelot. That is probably the right choice and it means that the last of the Snatch Land Rovers can now be replaced. However, while one can say it is exactly what the Army needed – that was back in 2003. It is now probably too little, too late.

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According to the BBC report "Its wheels work independently of each other; this means it is less of a problem if one falls off as the others would continue to work." Memo to REME, tighten wheel nuts before sending out on patrol. Wouldn't an extra pair of wheels, a la Saracen, reduce the problem still futher? I wonder if the modular design will allow the Rarden turrets taken off the Fox and unsuccessfully put on the Sabre to be put on the Ocelot to replace the Jackal?

You know, I can't help detecting a certain trace of bitterness and sarcasm in your comments here. Probably I'm wrong; perish the thought!

The line Brian quoted has to be among the dumbest things I've ever seen-or news of an unprecedented technological break-through.
Per Brian:
According to the BBC report "Its wheels work independently of each other; this means it is less of a problem if one falls off as the others would continue to work."
It only has 4 wheels. Four,count 'em four wheels. So there is some kind of anti-gravity unit that will magically lift that side of the vehicle if a wheel "falls off"?
I also wonder what kind of vehicle fleet does the BBC have that when one wheel goes bad all the other wheels cease to function.

Stephen, You obviously haven't seen the D-Notice about the "Unit, Gravity, Anti, For the use of" . The story to be released to Defence Correespondents is that Our Boys will actually eat lots of carrots to maintain vehicular balance. The Ocelot has been subjected to extensive survivability testing as this clip proves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SeZe1CKRv8

I can't imagine how you could possibly sense anything but the utmost admiration for those heroic figures that have brought us to this happy moment in time where the world is standing by in amazement at our skill, perspicacity (or summat) and our sheer dynamism in bringing such a timely solution to an intractable problem ...

Most cars can drive with a wheel missing if the suspension isn't too sloppy.
Take the diagonals between the 4 wheels and check which quadrant the centre of gravity sits in, either of the two wheels opposite should be sacrificable, but not both!
Do NOT try this with Robin Reliants.

Wasn't it the Kaiser who described the BEF as lions led by donkeys?

In almost a hundred years nothing seems to have changed.

I am not sure it was, but I'm not going to argue. Even Hitler remarked that British soldiers were "badly led". Actually, there is a lot more to it than that. Stephen Bungay in Alamein explored the issue at some length ... I did a post on that here:

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/1 ... nning.html

To my horror, I see that I wrote it four years ago.

RE: The four wheels working independently - does that suggest a hydraulic drive train?(something I'm sure I've suggested on here before now...) It is such an odd thing to say, given that even a normal car losing a wheel doesn't stop any of the other wheels turning. I can't imagine the reporting being *that* simplistic. Perhaps they have misunderstood what independent suspension is.

The MoD page announcing it is here.

Looking at the modular nature of it looks like a bit of a evolution and miniaturisation of the WMF Wer Wolf. The Wer Wolf is modular in that the rear passenger compartment can be changed but leaves the cab attached to the vehicle. With this they have put the cab within the protected module instead. Still going with two up front too. I must assume that two pairs of eyes looking ahead is sufficiently better than a centrally located driver or one encased in a protective shell like on the Buffel.

~The modularisation is clever, but not new. One wonders why it has taken so long. What is particularly interesting is the open-topped "gun platform" version, which proves the lie, viz the Jackal, that you cannot have an open-topped mine protected vehicle. Will we now see the Ocelot open-top gradually replace the Jackal, I wonder?