Successful programme nets accolade for Aish Technologies
Above: Tarian fitted to Foxhound vehicle.
The armour, called Tarian, is a revolutionary system of mesh panels that protects the vehicles against attack by rocket propelled grenade (RPG).
Tarian has been developed by AmSafe Bridport Ltd in collaboration with the UK Ministry of Defence. Amsafe Bridport is world renowned for its expertise specialist cargo netting for commercial and military applications, and has applied this know-how to the problem of protecting military vehicles in a lightweight and cost-effective manner.
The result is a netting mesh that defeats the RPG round before it can hit and penetrate the vehicle’s body shell. In this, the system works in a similar way to the conventional bar armour seen on military vehicles in the front-line areas of Afghanistan and Iraq. However, Tarian is many times lighter and more cost effective, and is easier to deploy and remove.
The question is how best to stand the mesh off the body shell in such a way that keeps it taut, offers good resistance to accidental damage and allows easy mesh replacement, but is light and affordable? Enter Aish Technologies’ production engineers, who worked in partnership with AmSafe Bridport’s design team on the stand-off brackets and vehicle interface metalwork, adding their manufacturing experience to AmSafe Bridport’s concept designs.
The relationship between AmSafe Bridport and Aish was so successful that it was extended to take advantage of Aish’s advanced manufacturing facility at Poole to produce brackets and metalwork for a production order that has provided Tarian for several hundred vehicles spread over a number of vehicle types, all within a very tight 13-month programme duration. Both companies worked tirelessly through prototype and production phases to ensure that this life-saving product was delivered on time and to budget.
Aish Technologies’ managing director Ed Bates said of the programme: “We are proud to be associated with such a ground-breaking product and delighted that we were able to help AmSafe Bridport deliver this important and successful programme.
"The relationship between AmSafe Bridport and Aish is a perfect example of how two specialist companies can pool their expertise to move in a new and exciting direction. Working with AmSafe Bridport has been a demanding and inspirational experience that we hope to continue into future programmes.”
AmSafe Bridport’s president Ian Kentfield added: “I would like to pass on my thanks for all the hard work and support provided by Aish Technologies Limited to AmSafe Bridport in the performance and delivery of the Tarian™ contract to the MoD by the end of January. It was quite a challenge to design, build and deliver the kits for several vehicles within the 13 months allowed. There were many hurdles and problems faced but despite them the Aish team continued to persevere, showed great willingness and support and maintained their sense of humour.
"I am sure that there were valuable lessons learned by us both but now is the time to recognise the great success achieved and this partnership forged. There is a great team of people at Aish and AmSafe Bridport could not have done it without them.”
