Iron Eagles

By CE Contributing Authors July 9, 2012 View Profile

The mission is to keep American armed forces equipped. Case Construction Equipment has been helping to spearhead that mission for years. Geoff Anderson, program manager of Case Construction Equipment Defense Products Group, passed along these photos and updates of Case machines in military action. The Case contract with TACOM (the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command) is a five-year contract, awarded in 2007, so the company today is actively equipping our military personnel.

The contract is for skid steers (model M400W) and compact track loaders (model M400T) with a product mix of approximately 70 percent skid steers and 30 percent compact track loaders. Case also delivers a containerized kit of attachments with each unit: an auger with 12- and 24-in. flights, pallet forks, 4-in-1 bucket and a hammer with various bits. Case provides and delivers training to the soldiers, which includes a 24-hour operator course and a 40-hour maintenance course. A complete range of technical manuals to military specifications are also developed and delivered.

The loaders are based on the Case 400 Series with modifications to meet the military specifications, including lift and tie-downs, 24-volt starting and charging systems, low temperature starting and a fuel system modified to run on either diesel or JP8 fuel. The units are air transportable and air droppable (as you can see in the photos). Case delivers to the National Guard, Reserve Army and Active Army components. In general, the vehicles are used by either Horizontal Engineering companies, (road builders) or Vertical Engineering companies (buildings), although they are starting to see deliveries to asphalt companies, Special Forces and military police units.

Case delivered vehicles to 44 of the 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan. For Afghanistan, the company delivered 24 vehicles which were to be used by whatever engineering companies were in theatre. Case delivered 365 vehicles in 2010, 785 vehicles in 2011 and will deliver approximately 800 in 2012.