Author: Tatra Trucks
Tatra Trucks supplies its vehicles to many armies around the world on different continents. Last year it received its first major orders from NATO armies in Western Europe. Tatra trucks will also serve the US Army at its Grafenwöhr training area in Germany.
Several years ago, the Danish army ordered dozens of Caesar self-propelled howitzers, which are built on Tatra Force 8x8 chassis. At the beginning of last year, it was announced that Kopřivnice-based Tatra Trucks, together with the Dutch DAF Trucks and Tatra Defence Vehicle, won an order for nearly 900 logistics trucks on Tatra chassis for the Belgian army.
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In the middle of last year, Tatra Trucks won a contract for more than seventy Tatra Force military firefighting vehicles for the Bundeswehr with Austrian firefighting specials manufacturer Rosenbauer. These commercial successes show that the capabilities and parameters of Tatra vehicles are increasingly appreciated even in armies west of the Czech border, where local established manufacturers have ruled for many decades.
Most recently, Tatras will also serve the US Army, which has bases in Germany. The US armed forces are tendering for road maintenance and field work vehicles to manage their military training sites. The Tatra Phoenix type was successful in one of these tenders. Two Tatra Phoenix 6x6 vehicles are the first flagships in the service of the US Army.
These are three-sided, four-wheel drive dump trucks that will serve at the Grafenwöhr military training area in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria, which is criss-crossed by a 300 km long network of roads and tracks. A team from the US Army Garrison Bavaria, Directorate of Public Works, Operation and Maintenance Division, is responsible for the maintenance and cleaning of the roads there. This division has a full range of heavy engineering equipment such as bulldozers, graders, scrapers, dumpers and many other machines.
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The first example of the Phoenix has already been handed over to the US Army by the German Tatra dealer Tschann-Nutzfahrzeuge at the Grafenwöhr training area. Another vehicle will soon follow, and it is possible that more Tatra trucks will join them in the future. Tschann-Nutzfahrzeuge, based in Salzburg, has been cooperating with the Kopřivnice-based carmaker since 2015 and offers Tatra and other brands mainly in Austria and Germany.
The U.S. Army requires robust and durable vehicles with a high level of reliability for the maintenance and management of its military training facilities, which Tatra vehicles meet and have always met. The drivers of the new operator could see the capabilities of the Tatra vehicles for themselves after the official handover of the first vehicle. However, the car also proved its durability to be fully compliant with military standards during cleaning in the washing facility at the Grafenwöhr base, where only high-pressure water is used.
Source: Tatra Trucks