The Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System (DROPS) was a family of logistics vehicles formerly operated by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, which consisted of two vehicle types: *

Leyland DAF Leyland DAF was a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Leyland, Lancashire, Leyland, United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of DAF NV. In February 1993, Leyland DAF was placed into receivership. History Leyland DAF was formed in Febru ...

medium mobility load carrier (MMLC) * Foden improved medium mobility load carrier (IMMLC) Both were able to transport 15-tonne flatracks or containers configured to ISO 20 feet standard and to load and offload them autonomously. Both may have been supported with side rail transfer equipment (SRTE) for loading and unloading railway wagons. The DROP system was designed to meet the very high intensity battles in Central Europe in the last decade of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. However, it entered service after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, but nevertheless proved a versatile vehicle system on operations completely different from those originally envisaged.

Operational requirement

The DROP system developed from the revaluation of readiness and firepower requirements of

British Army of the Rhine British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to British Army occupation forces in the Rhineland, West Germany, after the First and Second World Wars, and during the Cold War, becoming part of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) tasked ...

(BAOR) in the mid-1970s. This was driven by three principal developments in the Warsaw Pact and, in particular, Group Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG). These were: *The capability for rapid mobilisation and deployment brought about by increased mechanisation and enhanced communications in the Soviet Army. This was linked to a doctrine of much more rapid and decisive attack designed to dislocate NATO defences by highly concentrated and massive penetration. *The development of improved tank designs such as the

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet Union, Soviet main battle tanks that entered production in 1973. The T-72 was a development based on the T-64 using thought and design of the previous Object 167M. About 25,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refu ...

(and later the

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72 and changing the engine to a gas turbi ...

) that were to all intents and purposes impervious to 105mm artillery fire but could be affected by 155mm calibre. To counter these developments a decision was made to make all divisional artillery 155mm and phase out the 105mm Abbot. The Corps Barrier Plan, a major structure of obstacles, including a huge minefield made up of anti-tank bar mines and Ranger anti-personnel mines was also strengthened to blunt such tactics. Finally two parallel studies: the

Battle Attrition Study A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

(BAS) and Review of Ammunition Rates and Scales (RARS) worked through the implications to the British Army of the predicted new style of Soviet aggression. The BAS confirmed that 1 (BR) Corps could resist and contain a Soviet attack of the type predicted but that over eight days of high-intensity warfare would suffer massive casualties. However it was imperative for a follow-on capability to exist and there should be sufficient manpower, materiel and ammunition for 1 (BR) Corps to fight on at 40% of mobilisation strength for a further two days. This became known as the 8+2 model. The RARS identified that the previous ammunition scales for the NATO 30-day battle would be completely used up in the 8+2 scenario. Furthermore, the change from 105mm (with a shell weighing 18 lbs) to 155mm (with a shell weighing 96 lbs) plus the huge quantities of bar mines created additional storage requirements with an emphasis on locating stocks forward to meet shorter warning scenarios. It became clear on trials in the late 1970s and early 1980s that the existing transport fleet operated by the

Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider defence forces. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and tr ...

(RCT) and forward principally by the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(RA) and the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

(RE) was inadequate. Fix-bodied trucks loaded and unloaded by fork-lift trucks could not move fast enough. Depots were too cramped to outload at the pace required and stocks on the ground could not be moved sufficiently quickly to meet the predicted pace of battle. Productivity fell: instead of the two-to-three round trips a day envisaged often only one could be achieved with the remainder of the time spent queueing. Finally, the rail outloading system from the ammunition depots along the Rhine could not meet the challenge and railheads capable of providing sufficient space to offload trains using conventional materiel handling equipment were limited and vulnerable. A work study showed that a truck of large capacity, ideally built to ISO container 20 foot standard, that could load and offload its own body cut through all the delays and significantly improved mobility. In parallel materiel handling equipment (MHE) of special design could speed up rail loading and offloading by a considerable margin and work on a wider variety of sites in comparison with conventional materiel handling equipment such as the Eager Beaver

forklift A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

. This novel concept was agreed within the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(MOD) in 1981 and let to two staff targets (GST 3920 for the vehicle and GST 3921 for the MHE) being passed to industry in August 1982. Procurement was novel in that tenders were requested for the whole system. It had also become apparent in early 1982 that RA and RE vehicles operating forward would require higher levels of mobility and the DROPS (improved medium mobility load carrier -IMMLC) was specified.

Specification and procurement

Leyland and Foden vehicles were fitted with MULTILIFT loading equipment that were selected from designs submitted to the Ministry of Defence by a wide cross-section of the UK engineering industry. It was by far the most detailed selection process ever undertaken for a British Army logistic system. The provisionally selected vehicles were extensively trialled for a year by a specially-formed trials unit, before both the unit and the MOD were completely satisfied that they met the army's requirements. The DROPS vehicles and equipment were limited in their design to operate effectively only in NATO's European climatic conditions of temperature and humidity, and as such both variants were only available in left hand drive only. It has, therefore, been a challenging engineering problem to ensure that they have performed extremely well under war conditions in an environment for which they were specifically not designed - the desert.

MMLC

Introduced in early 1990, the truck was a military development of the commercial Leyland T45 Roadtrain. As the company had entrusted to

Scammell Scammell Lorries Limited was a British manufacturer of trucks, particularly specialist and military off-road vehicles, between 1921 and 1988. From 1955 Scammell was part of Leyland Motors. History Scammell started as a late- Victorian period w ...

the development of the commercial eight-wheeled variant (S24 constructor range), the military variant was developed as the Scammell S26. Initially developed for the 1986 DROPS trials as a 6x6, the final 8x6 S26 had a Rolls-Royce Perkins 350 Eagle engine; a 12-litre diesel @ ), a ZF six-speed automatic gearbox and

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axles. In February 1987 the company learned that its tender for 1,522 such vehicles was successful, but because the Leyland group merged with

DAF Trucks DAF Trucks is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. DAF originally stood for ''van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek''. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabin (lorry), Cabs and axle assembly line, assemblies ...

of the Netherlands to form DAF NV the S26 would be built at the Leyland factory in

Leyland, Lancashire Leyland ( ) is a town in South Ribble, Lancashire, England, 6 miles (10 km) south of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. The population was 35,578 at the 2011 Census. The name of the town is Anglo-Saxon, meaning "untilled land". History Leyland ...

, allowing the complete closure of Scammell's

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

site. Leyland eventually produced 1,421 MMLC vehicles and a number of vehicle cabs ordered as spares. Due to damage, the entire MoD stock of spare cabs has now been exhausted. During the

first Gulf War The Gulf War (1990–1991) was an armed conflict between Iraq and a multinational military coalition led by the United States, triggered by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Persian Gulf War may also refer to: * Shatt al-Arab conflict ...

, the vehicles suffered from sand ingress, which resulted in a total failure of the engine plant. A modification was quickly introduced to raise the air intake to avoid the sand ingress. During 2002 the fleet underwent a major midlife upgrade and refurbishment. This included the introduction of an

anti-lock braking system An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a Automotive safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...

(ABS). The MMLC had two trailer types, (known as "king" and "queen" trailers) specifically designed to carry the same load pallet which was transferred from the main vehicle. The queen trailer was supplied by Reynolds Boughton but the king trailer was indeed supplied by King Trailers who have since 1962 been the UK's biggest manufacturer of trailers for specialist loads. The Leyland DAF MMLC vehicles were mainly issued to the

(RCT), later to become

Royal Logistic Corps The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army. History The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) was formed on 5 April 1993, by the union of five British Army corps: * Royal Engine ...

(RLC), however a number of these vehicles were provided to other units along with the

RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by Royal Warrant in 1942, the Corps carries-out security tasks relating to the protection of assets and personnel dedicated ...

IMMLC

Production of the Foden IMMLCs began in January 1994. 404 were introduced. These vehicles were primarily supplied to the Royal Artillery in support of the

AS90 The AS-90 ("Artillery System for the 1990s"), known officially as Gun Equipment 155 mm L131, is an armoured self-propelled artillery formerly used by the British Army and subsequently donated for use by Ukrainian Army. It can fire standa ...

.
/ref> These vehicles differed significantly from the Leyland DAF variants, notably with Foden cabs, but with increased ground clearance, and Perkins (Shrewsbury) Eagle 350 MX diesel engines.http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Military-Vehicles-and-Logistics/Foden-8-x-6-DROPS-IMMLC-Logistic-Support-Truck-United-Kingdom.html {{Dead link, date=February 2022 The IMMLC vehicles again had a specifically designed trailer, for the transportation of replacement engines for the AS90.

Replacement

As both vehicles are now out of commercial production, resulting in vastly reduced and resultantly higher cost spares provision, and taking into account the wider geographic nature of modern British Army deployment, the MOD have retired and replaced them with the Enhanced Pallet Load System, Enhanced Pallet Load System (EPLS), which is based on the 15 tonne

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

SV.

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