JCB Construction Equipment last week deployed its first nine new combat-ready backhoe loaders — the High Mobility Engineer Excavator — as part of a $230 million procurement contract with the U.S. Army. The Savannah, Ga.-based company expects to deploy approximately 800 JCB HMEEs to the Army in Afghanistan in total.
“This deployment is an important milestone for JCB and particularly for our North American operations,” said chairman and CEO John Patterson. “The HMEE represents a tremendous accomplishment and is a strong example of JCB’s continued commitment to innovation and motivation.”
With the globalization of the military theatre, the JCB HMEE has been purposefully designed to meet a variety of transportation requirements, whether by land, sea or air. This first round of HMEE’s were loaded onto military C-5 aircraft at US Airforce base in South Carolina and transported to Bagram, Afghanistan.
The 35,000 pound, state-of-the-art HMEE, purpose-built for the U.S. Army at the company’s Savannah plant, is the result of several years of R&D and hands-on testing with the Department of Defense and military experts. Features include ABS braking technology, computer diagnostics, run-flat tires, roll-over protection and a two-man air-conditioned cab.
From this point forward, at least a half a dozen HMEE’s will be delivered every two weeks to various military installations around the globe. In addition to the original agreement, JCB has earned a contract to service HMEE’s in the field for 2 years with an exercisable option to extend. To fulfill that commitment, JCB has embedded field service representatives into units operating in South West Asia help support the machines while in the field and to train personnel.
