Leading public sector under Ministry of Defence BEML Limited has rolled out the first prototype of Mechanical Minefield Marking Equipment Mk-II, built on BEML TATRA 6x6 an ‘Atmanirbhar’ product, developed through TOT from R&D E Engineers, DRDO.
The virtual roll out was performed in the presence of BEML Chairman and Managing Director M V Rajasekar and V V Parlikar, Director, R&D (Engrs), DRDO. Also present were Shri Kiran Jadhav, CMD Accurate Group, other valued partners from Dynalog (India) Ltd, Electro-pneumatics & Hydraulics (I) Pvt Ltd and Adroit System Pvt Ltd and BEML team headed by Defence Director A K Srivastav, according to a press release issued here on Wednesday.
BEML signed LAToT during the ‘Bandhan’ event in presence of Raksha Mantri during DEFEXPO 2020 and is executing the project by partnering with a number of MSMEs.
Mechanical Minefield Marking Equipment MK-II developed by R&DE (Engineers) would greatly benefit Indian army to mark/fence minefields. The MK II is designed for marking the mine fields at a faster rate, semi-automatically with minimal human intervention.
The equipment is capable of marking/fencing at a minimum rate of 1.2 km/hr with inter-picket spacing of 15 m. The system has capability to place the pickets at 10 – 35 meters spacing in the step of 5 m. The picket can be driven to a maximum depth of 450 mm by this system.
MMME Mk-II system is designed to operate in plains of Punjab, as well as semi-desert & desert of Rajasthan, in all weather conditions. The system can store 500 numbers of pickets and polypropylene rope of 15 km in length.
The main sub systems which are to be integrated onto the vehicle are Carrier vehicle, Mechanical sub system, Pneumatic sub system, Electrical sub system and Electronic sub system with selected sub-vendors. Sourcing of subsystems from industries established during the development phase is being followed by BEML. The superstructure is being built by sub-vendors and supplied to Accurate Group for integration onto BEML HMV.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajashekar said, ”We are proud to be a partner with this project in our quest to achieve ‘Atmanirbhrata’. The equipment will greatly benefit the Indian Army during operations. I am sure that this project would be the harbinger for many more projects to come.”
BEML is expected to receive the orders of more than 55 systems from MoD after the successful trial evaluation.