Web Exclusive: Case Builds Skid Steer Loaders ‘Army Strong’
by Karen M. Scally
April 20, 2010
A worker at Case Construction Equipment’s plant in Wichita, Kansas, prepares to attach the track to the M400T compact track loader. It takes about 40 hours of labor to assemble each machine.
Case Construction Equipment normally doesn’t build its skid
steer loaders to survive a fall from an airplane.
But Case’s military skid steers are designed to do just that.
On April 14, 2010 at its plant in Wichita,
Kansas, Case revealed its M400W skid steer and
M400T compact track loader, specifically built for military applications that
include airdrop deliveries to hard-to-reach jobsites, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of a $160 million contract for the U.S. Army
Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), Case began manufacturing the
first of up to 3,400 skid steer and compact track loaders in February.
Production is expected to continue through at least 2017.
‘True Customer is Our
Soldiers’
Though Case’s actual customer for the products is the Army,
Bill Thompson, senior manager of Case Defense Products Group, said the company
kept another aspect in mind while making the skid steers.
“The true customer is our soldiers, the men and women on the
field today,” Thompson said.
A M400W skid steer is ready for delivery. The machine is equivalent in size and specifications to Case’s 420 Series 3 skid steer loader.
Each skid steer and compact track loader will also be delivered with an auger drive with 12- and 24-inch augers and a 4-foot extension; a 4-in-1 multipurpose bucket; a hydraulic hammer with multiple attachments; and pallet forks. The attachments are housed in a specially designed container capable of rapid deployment.
To make sure the machines are “Army strong,” Case tested the skid steer and compact track loaders for airdropping, helicopter slinging and operation in extreme temperatures ranging from minus 25 F to 120 F.
Lt. Col. Darrell Bennis, right, talks to a Case worker about building the military skid steers. “What you see here … will have a legacy,” Bennis says.
Lt. Col. Darrell Bennis of the U.S. Army was impressed by the machines.
“What you see may be skid steer loaders, but I see a Swiss Army knife,” Bennis told the workers at the Wichita plant. “They will provide support across the force.”
Bennis said the machines will be used by military members in the efforts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, and even in the work to repair Haiti, devastated after the earthquake in January.
“What you see here … will have a legacy,” Bennis said.
The skid steer and compact track loader project is among several recent contracts awarded to Case from the U.S. military, totaling more than 5,000 machines.
Karen M. Scally
scallyk@bnpmedia.com
Karen M. Scally is the editor of Site Prep.
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