Dive Brief:
- In 2017, the Army will begin to get a new model of backhoe from JCB that has a 6.7-liter diesel power plant capable of moving its 17.5 tons at 60 mph.
- Blast protection, which was included on an earlier version of the military machine, is standard, and there will be a version with full-crew protection.
- JCB has a $50-million contract for the speedy loaders that can keep up with a convoy on their own and are designed for transport by C-17 and C-130 aircraft.
Dive Insight:
Officially, the backhoes are High Mobility Engineer Excavators (HMEE). JCB had a $206-million contract for the first version in 2005. The new, speedier version is designated the HMEE-1.