Armored Recovery Vehicle

Overview

An armored recovery vehicle exists to keep a tank fleet moving. When a main battle tank throws a track, sinks into mud, breaks a powerpack, or is hit and disabled, it has to be pulled out, repaired in the field, or towed to a workshop, often while the area is still under fire. The Armored Recovery Vehicle is built on the same chassis as the tanks it serves so it can go wherever they go, carry the same protection, and tow a casualty of similar weight. Onto that chassis it adds the tools of heavy field recovery: a powerful main winch, a slewing crane, a dozer blade that also works as a ground anchor, a full hydraulic plant to drive all of it, and an arc welding set for repairs.

The design problem is reaction loads. Pulling a 54 t tank out of soft ground can need a line tension far above what the recovery vehicle itself weighs, so the vehicle would simply slide forward if it relied only on its own mass. The answers are the dozer blade dug in as an anchor, the tracks for traction, and a cable reeved through a block to multiply pull. The structure has to carry all of that into the hull without tearing local plate.

Recovery winches

The Main Recovery Winch is the primary tool. Its Winch Drum carries about 120 m of 33 mm Recovery Wire Rope with a breaking load near 90 t. A Winch Hydraulic Motor drives the drum through a planetary Winch Reduction Gearbox reducing roughly 250:1, giving a direct pull around 35 t. Routed through the Snatch Block anchored to the casualty, the line doubles to past 70 t at half the speed. A Cable Load Cell measures cable tension so the controller can run a constant-tension mode and cut out before the cable is overloaded, and the fail-safe Winch Holding Brake locks the drum if hydraulic pressure is lost. The cable leaves through a roller Roller Fairlead that lets it be pulled off at wide side angles.

Because the 33 mm rope is too heavy to drag by hand across to a stuck vehicle, the Auxiliary Winch pays out a light Auxiliary Cable first. The crew walk that thin line to the casualty, attach it, then use it to haul the heavy main cable across.

Crane and dozer blade

The Hydraulic Crane is a hydraulic A-frame crane that lifts up to about 20 t at short radius, enough to pull a tank powerpack of 5 to 6 t straight out of the engine bay or to lift a turret. The Telescoping Boom telescopes for reach, raised by Luffing Cylinder rams and rotated on the geared Crane Slew Bearing by the Crane Slew Drive. The Hook Block is raised and lowered by its own Crane Hoist Winch, and Stabilizing Outrigger legs plant on the ground to widen the support base so the vehicle does not tip under a side load.

The Dozer / Earth-Anchor Blade across the front does two jobs. As a blade it clears obstacles, fills ditches, and prepares routes. Lowered and dug in by its Blade Cylinder rams, the Blade Moldboard becomes an earth anchor that reacts the winch pull into the ground through the Blade Push Arm arms, letting the vehicle out-pull its own weight. The Blade Cutting Edge is a bolt-on wear item replaced in the field.

Hydraulic power

Everything except the tracks runs on oil. The Hydraulic Power System takes drive from the engine through the Power Take-Off to two Hydraulic Pump units delivering up to about 350 bar, fed from the Hydraulic Reservoir. Operator joysticks command the Control Valve Block, whose proportional Proportional Spool Valve spools meter flow for smooth control of heavy loads while Relief Valve valves cap pressure. A long winch pull turns most of its input power into heat, so the Hydraulic Oil Cooler is sized to reject that heat, and Hydraulic Accumulator units smooth the pressure spikes of fast crane moves.

Hull, powerpack and running gear

The Armored Hull reuses a tank Hull Structure in welded rolled homogeneous armor, with a Floor Armor belly against mines and reinforced Front Anchor Point points that feed the winch and blade loads into the structure. The crew work from the Crew Station using the Recovery Control Console to watch winch tension and crane load. Motive power is the removable Powerpack, a Diesel Engine near 850 kW with a Cross-Drive Transmission geared low for towing, driving the Running Gear through a Final Drive at each Drive Sprocket.

Field repair and survivability

The Auxiliary Systems carry the repair and protection equipment. The engine-driven Welding Set supports field welding and cutting on track, hull, and casualties. Rigid Rigid Tow Bar units and a stowed Rigging Kit of shackles, blocks, and slings set up tows and multi-part pulls. The NBC Protection System keeps the crew compartment at overpressure, the Fire Suppression System system floods the engine bay on a Flame Detector trigger, and Smoke Grenade Launcher banks lay a screen so a recovery can be done under observation. Some armies field a lighter wheeled recovery vehicle for softer-skinned fleets, but the tracked type is what recovers main battle tanks at the front.